4/2/19 Vanessa Hua: A River of Stars

On the 2nd of April, I, along with the rest of the Global Scholars, heard from Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars, Deceit and Other Possibilities, and You Don't Look Like Your Picture. After having read A River of Stars (courtesy of Ms. Diederich), I was excited to get to hear from its author. Ms. Hua became interested in storytelling (pertaining specifically to Asian-American stories), after hearing one particular story that intrigued her: the story of Azia Kim, a teenaged Asian-American woman from Orange County who, instead of admitting to her self-described "tiger-parents" that she didn't get in to Stanford, pretended to attend the school (even going so far as to live on campus) for an entire semester. In this story, Ms. Hua saw a universal Asian-American experience: wanting to live up to parents' wishes, be it for the knowledge one has of their parents' sacrifices, or for the cultural and familial structures which place undue stress on adolescent Asian-Americans.
Even though, as we heard from Ms. Hua, she tells fictional stories about the lives of Asian-Americans  (which are, as is implied, not her own) she does not think of herself as a "native informant;" instead, she strives to illuminate the nuances, conquests, and shortcomings of their shared culture through her work, like A River of Stars, which follows a Chinese woman on her journey to a maternity home in America. The book is set in LA, which is fitting, actually, as in the last few years more than one illegal maternity home has been broken up in our neighboring San Marino. All in all, it was an interesting experience to hear her speak and listen to her thoughts on current issues within the Asian-American community.

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