When reading Yu and Nguyen, I would argue that only one of them is Asian Pacific Islander literature. We all have different opinions of what makes a work of literature Asian Pacific Islander, but I believe only Nguyen’s book is. Bringing in an outside example (a children’s book to be exact), we see the book “Please, Baby, Please.” By Spike Lee and Kadir Nelson, and the interesting about this children’s book is that it has a baby of color on the cover, so many people would believe that it is an Ethnic/Racial book, but when you look into the book, it’s about a baby misbehaving, so what does that have to do anything with Ethnicity/Race? I believe that to be Asian Pacific Islander/African-American/Latino(a) literature, it has to deal with ethnic …show more content…
“My father built a time machine and then he spent his whole life trying to figure it out how to use it to get more time” (Yu 18). Obviously, this book is focused more on the science fictional universe, rather than a racial/ethnic one; I believe this book is to be read more as a science fiction book because it doesn’t really talk about issues of race. “We would later find out that even in science fiction, it takes time to travel time” (Yu 152). This book is clearly grounded in science fiction; it talks about time machines and time travel, so why do people still read it as Asian Pacific Islander literature? I know each audience will interpret it differently, but this is my interpretation. There are many other writers that do racial literature very well, but I don’t believe this one is an example of that. When I think of racial/ethnic literature, I think of Esmeralda Santiago in her book “When I Was Puerto Rican” because it demonstrates that Latino culture, and it presents the struggles to a person outside of that community; when I read this book, I understand it because Papí is cheating on Mamí, and in that Latino culture, that’s considered okay, and it demonstrates that culture and the masculinity that influences it—it’s an issue. When looking at Yu, I don’t believe he is writing for this to be an Asian Pacific Islander