There’s one section of the bookstore that I judiciously avoid.
I call it the “Sad Stories of Asian People” shelf.
I mean, I do like my periodic injections of Did you know how much we suffered as Asians in all our history or OMG being an Asian is hard in the modern world stories.
For one, I adore Su Tong’s novels, who wrote the novel behind the world-famous Zhang Yimou movie, Raise the Red Lantern.
And I mean, logically, I know there’s demand for it, especially overseas-born-Asians who have to wrestle with East vs West cultural pressures. But something about the West’s adoration of these novels has always rubbed me the wrong way.
What is it about these stories that Western publication houses love them so much they throw awards at it?
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Elizabeth Tai 
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