ladybug
“The dirty street urchin who eats dogs and cats and bats raw. the communist spy who wants to kill Americans, the virgin in the schoolgirl skirt that will seduce him and ruin his life.”
This book takes place during the COVID pandemic, our main character a half-Chinese woman living in New York. Her sister dies in the first chapter being pushed in front of the subway, which was something that happened often enough during the pandemic to Asian women that when I moved to Europe I was terrified of standing too close to the tracks and big men who stood too close to me while waiting for the metro. Still, I was surprised to read about it in the book, I thought we’ve collectively decided to forget about that and I am the only person still afraid.
I think this book is an important one. It captures the rage and fear Asian people– especially East Asian women, for whom fetishisation and degradation is two sides of the same coin– felt during and post-pandemic.
Ultimately though, I think the writing fell a little too short for me. All the examples of racism are too explicit and I wish there was more nuances and exploration of more subtle, implicit ways racism can affect an Asian person.
“The dirty street urchin who eats dogs and cats and bats raw. the communist spy who wants to kill Americans, the virgin in the schoolgirl skirt that will seduce him and ruin his life.”
This book takes place during the COVID pandemic, our main character a half-Chinese woman living in New York. Her sister dies in the first chapter being pushed in front of the subway, which was something that happened often enough during the pandemic to Asian women that when I moved to Europe I was terrified of standing too close to the tracks and big men who stood too close to me while waiting for the metro. Still, I was surprised to read about it in the book, I thought we’ve collectively decided to forget about that and I am the only person still afraid.
I think this book is an important one. It captures the rage and fear Asian people– especially East Asian women, for whom fetishisation and degradation is two sides of the same coin– felt during and post-pandemic.
Ultimately though, I think the writing fell a little too short for me. All the examples of racism are too explicit and I wish there was more nuances and exploration of more subtle, implicit ways racism can affect an Asian person.