Review "Sharon H. Chang's memoir delves deeply into issues of the construction of race, cultural appropriation, and colonization both in Hawai'i and the rest of America. From Hollywood to Honolulu to the techie capital of Seattle, Chang explores what it means to be a Mixed-Race Asian American woman today with candor and courage."MAY-LEE CHAI, AUTHOR OF HAPA GIRL AND THE GIRL FROM PURPLE MOUNTAIN"Hapa Tales examines the entanglements of Asian American mixed race and settler colonialism. It shows how mixed-race people, suspending in a state of liminality, can too easily succumb to a desire for a "hapa" piece of the American pie. Instead of allowing this vulnerability to be used as a lever of exploitation, Chang develops a method of listening in everyday life that tunes into what Native Hawaiians have been saying all along."ANNMARIA SHIMABUKU, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF ALEGAL: BIOPOLITICS AND THE UNINTELLIGIBILITY OF OKINAWAN LIFE"Sharon Chang's novel is a powerful, self-reflective testimony on the complexities of racial belonging and what it means to be home. Navigating her identity across the continental U.S. and Hawai'i, she reminds us that the fluidity of multiplicity is oftentimes confronted by the rigid expectations and ignorance of others, which lends to a deeply introspective account of what it means to be an Asian Mixed Woman in multiple settings. Chang is also quick to remind the reader of her own role both implicitly and explicitly, that comes with confronting race, racism and indignity when visiting a settler colonial island state. Hapa Tales and Other Lies is a wonderful addition to the growing body of literature of critical mixed race studies."RUDY P. GUEVARRA JR., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN STUDIES, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, CO-EDITOR OF BEYOND ETHNICITY: NEW POLITICS OF RACE IN HAWAI'I Read more About the Author Sharon H. Chang is an award-winning Author Photographer Activist with a lens on racism, social justice and the Asian American diaspora. She is author of the critically acclaimed academic book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World and her newly released memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Mixed Race Memoir About the Hawai'i I Never Knew. Her writing has also appeared in BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Racism Review, Hyphen Magazine, ParentMap Magazine, South Seattle Emerald, The Seattle Globalist, AAPI Voices and International Examiner. Sharon was named 2015 Social Justice Commentator of the Year by The Seattle Globalist and 2016 Favorite Local API Author / Writer by International Examiner readers. She is currently working her third book looking at Asian American women, gender, and race, to be co-authored with preeminent sociologist Joe R. Feagin. Read more
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