Growing up in suburban Michigan, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Michelle found solidarity with African Americans in the work of seminal black authors. Attending public schools from kindergarten through high school, she remembers in her book that she “…never learned about Asian Americans, alive or dead, in any class, from any teacher.” Michelle Kuo, the author of 2017’s Reading with Patrick, grew up under similar circumstances in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After all, how do you express the way you were affected by the stories you didn’t hear? I’ve realized in recent years, however, that the exclusion of Chinese Americans from the American canon had an impact that I’ve struggled to put into words. Personal identity is multi-faceted and I found plenty of role models and sources of pride as I grew to become a dedicated student, athlete and lover of food and music in suburban Connecticut. I reflect on this shortage of Chinese American stories during my childhood without criticism or complaint.
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