Not Your Yellow Fantasy

You don't realize that these words they tell you, that you're beautiful and exotic, pretty because you're "different", is a slow, ghastly well of honey, waiting to trap you in your most vulnerable moments.
You lay there, absorbing what you perceive as sweetness, unable to taste its true bitterness. And then, it's too late.

The popularity and objectification of Asian “values” and aesthetics in a lot of Western parts, often tinged with misogynistic elements, is something I've noticed myself over the years. So, it's great to have a book written by someone involved and affected by it, done with a lot of personal passion and thorough academic research into a facet of sociology that doesn't have that much academic analysis done yet.
The widespread reduction of Asian culture by Westerners to “exotic” fetishes, submissive gender stereotypes that support power fantasies, and a problematic perception of sex work/trafficking is examined and connected to historic roots and the branches that reach into the now, including the model minority myth. (I certainly understand better now why alt-right bigots still love hentai...)
Although this is primarily focusing on the USA and the experience of Asian American people, looking at that specific history and dynamic, it's still a valuable read for non-Americans as what it points out reaches beyond that and largely rings true for any white-dominated country. Aside from that, even just from a sociology and history viewpoint, this is a very interesting look at a very complex cultural development.
It even incorporates very recent subjects like the rise of “incel” communities online and the impact of the COVID pandemic on Asian-American tensions.

I personally wasn't big on the formatting/layout with frequent emphasized quotes and paragraphs, which sometimes made it feel a bit too much like an online article trying to grab my attention. But that is just a bit of a pet peeve of mine and I do appreciate the effort to make the book visually interesting as well. The addition of little art pieces from different artists to break up the passages of text was nice.
Most importantly though, the content of the text is undoubtedly the product of a lot of thorough work and I enjoyed that quite a lot.