A conversation with award-winning Chinese-American author Yang Huang

So honored to talk to Tom Wilmer about my writing journey, my three novels, and how I strive to create a more tolerant and hopeful world by writing about my lived experiences. His curiosity, knowledge, and attention to details marvels me. Listen to his award winning show Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer as he takes you from San Luis Obispo to around the world. It will bring you peace and hope during the difficult times 🤗 💜

MY GOOD SON Launch Party

Welcome to the virtual launch for MY GOOD SON on 6/9 at 6pm PST! I will be in conversation with a brilliant writer and dear friend Kaitlin Solimine. We will raffle off three gifts: a Booksmith gift certificate, a copy of MY GOOD SON, and a copy of EMPIRE OF GLASS. Please join us and enter to win. RSVP for free!

MY GOOD SON is the story about a Chinese father, Mr. Cai, who works as a tailor in Yangzhou, a provincial town. Mr. Cai wants his son Feng to become an engineer, but Feng has failed his college entrance exams four times, and this is his last chance. Meanwhile, a young American man named Jude comes to the tailor shop to have a vest made. Mr. Cai seizes the opportunity to ask Jude to be Feng’s financial sponsor, so that Feng can go to study at an American university. Of course, this plan backfires. Mr. Cai discovers that Jude is a gay man and needs help to come out to his estranged father.

Through writing about a father’s frustration, I learned much about parenting, its deep power and profound burden. For a year we have sheltered in place with our teenagers. Writing this book gives me a rare perspective that I wouldn’t have otherwise, so I was able to accept and appreciate my children, who are young men on their journeys into an uncertain world. I felt this book made me a wiser and less anxious parent.

New York Times Book Review says: "As with her previous books, ‘Living Treasures’ and ‘My Old Faithful,’ Huang’s latest explores the generational push-pull of family life in post-Tiananmen China . . . Mr. Cai remains front and center, always compelling, a man doing everything for his boy, the way a good father — supposedly — should.”

Ms. Magazine says, “A poignant meditation on fathers and sons, American and Chinese cultures and traditions in the face of modernity, Yang Huang’s latest novel is layered, evocative and engaging.”

I had an amazing conservation, which mentioned the anniversary of Tiananmen, with Rob Moore and Lee Moore, who were Chinese language and culture scholars. When I shared the Chinese Literature Podcast interview on 6/4/2021, it was promptly banned on WeChat. Censorship in action! This has been the political background of my fiction to this day. You see, I have not exaggerated a bit.

Now you have the pleasure to view MY GOOD SON Virtual Launch at Booksmith. Enjoy!

#china #parenting #writing #books #fathers #son #collegeadmissions

Giveaway: MY GOOD SON and #StandUpforAAPI

I’m happy to offer a “10 signed ARCs” giveaway for MY GOOD SON, from University of New Orleans Press, pub date: 5/27/2021. To enter: https://bit.ly/2PUttiv. Giveaway closes on Tuesday April 27.

And a #StandUpforAAPI GIVEAWAY:

I’m late to join the efforts of AAPI authors to tell our stories and battle against hate crimes. One way that we are working together is by supporting and sharing giveaways by AAPI creators, to boost and amplify our voices so we can be heard. Other ways to support the AAPI community include: talking to your family and friends about the events last month, learning bystander intervention, donating to AAPI and human rights organizations, supporting AAPI businesses, writing your political leaders.

For this giveaway, I’ll be choosing 5 winners for 5 signed copies of MY OLD FAITHFUL or LIVING TREASURES.

To enter:

1) like this post

2) tell me a book by an Asian or Asian diaspora author you’ve read recently or would like to read.

3) tag a friend

Giveaway closes on Friday, April 30. US only. Thank you for your support!

#StandUpforAAPI #diversifyyourshelf #bookishgiveaway #bookgiveaway #bookgiveaways #diversespines #diversebooks #diversereads #giveaway #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate

My Favorite Interviews

Writing is a solitary journey, until the book is published. It is at once terrifying and exciting to meet the readers. Being interviewed is a true privilege. I especially treasured these interchanges when the interviewer discovered something I didn’t know about my stories and characters. For this reason I listed these interviews to be my favorite. I will add to this list!

Kaitlin Solimine is an accomplished fiction author and East Asian studies scholar. In this interview, she asked me about the role family plays within wider sociocultural forces. My fictional family lived during a time of momentous changes in China and the U.S. I reverse engineered the stories to piece together the world and social mores: some of it (materialism) became reality, while others (feminism) are still a work-in-progress. Most importantly, there are dreams (democracy) deferred.   

Showing the Human Face - Fiction Writers Review

Mitzi Rapkin is an insightful and generous reader. She asked me whether the elder sister in “Dream Lover” might have an affair if Xu tried. I hadn’t thought about this scenario until she mentioned it. So Xu does an honorable deed by rejecting her, although he looks down on her as being undesirable, even as a mistress. The double standard can work in the woman’s favor and keeps her from making a big mistake!

Aspen Public Radio First Draft

I have learned much from Scott Kent Jones’s podcast Give and Take, which helps me make sense of the current volatile political environment. When it was my turn, I had an “unbridled” conversation with my host and forwent my motto “Don’t air dirty linen in public” about the Chinese people and culture. I usually don’t tell the whole truth about people’s shortcomings and instead satirize them in fiction. I surprised myself in that interview, which was truly “Give and Take.” Have a listen.

Give and Take

Writer’s Bone is a wonderful podcast featuring a diverse group of writers. Hosts Daniel Ford and Sean Tuohy are writers and staunch supporters of their peers. Daniel called me “an old soul,” which is a high compliment. I answered with my mission statement and vision, because seriously, few people would have cared. Readers want the words on the page. In a way the author’s intention doesn’t matter. Still, that is the reason those words are on the page. Thank you, Daniel, for letting me say it!

Writer's Bone

Lastly, my TV interview with Jiayu Jeng at KTSF Channel 26. Okay, I spent more time getting dolled up. Jiayu is a beautiful, caring, and witty journalist. I translated my English interviews into Mandarin and practiced speaking them fluently. I also worried about my mother hearing me say things she doesn’t like. But when it aired, I realized I spoke appropriately. This proves that my internal censorship is alive and well, despite that I have lived in the U.S. for 28 years, much longer than I had lived in China. I chose to write in English to lose my internal censorship.

Uploaded by KTSF Channel 26 on 2018-04-30.

This blog is an ode to the literary community that supports writers in their lonely endeavors. Thank you, everyone, for reading, empathizing, and challenging the writers!