Big Little Man : In Search of My Asian Self

Scope and content: "Why do so many people find Asian women sexy but Asian men sexless? Alex Tizon's family emigrated from the Philippines when he was four. He quickly learned to be ashamed of his face, his color, his physical size. In movies and on television he saw Asian men as 'servants, villains, or geeks, one-dimensional, powerless, sneaky little men.' His fierce and funny observations of sex and the Asian American male include the story of his own college life in the 1980s, a tortured tutorial on just how little sex appeal accrued to the Asian man. And then, two transformations. First, Tizon's growing understanding that shame is universal; that his own just happened to take racial shape. Next, seismic cultural changes--from Xiu Xiang's 2004 Olympic gold-winning sprint, to Jerry Yang's phenomenal success with Yahoo! Inc., to Keanu Reeves' leading-man status in The Matrix--that draw him out of his exile. Finally, Tizon's deeply original, taboo-bending investigation turns outward, tracking the unheard stories of young men today, in a landscape still complex but much changed for the Asian American man";Killing Magellan -- Land of the Giants -- Orientals -- Seeking Hot Asian Babes -- Babes, Continued -- Asian Boy -- Tiny Men on the Big Screen -- Its Color Was Its Size -- Getting Tall -- Wen Wu -- Yellow Tornado -- "What Men Are Supposed to Do" -- "One of Us, Not One of Us" -- Big Little Fighter -- Author's Note;Scope and content: "A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's memoir, in the spirit of Richard Rodriquez's Hunger for Memory and Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler--an intimate look at the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian American male" “Alex Tizon fearlessly penetrates the core of not just what it means to be male and Asian in America, but what it means to be human anywhere.”—Cheryl Strayed, New York Times bestselling author Shame, Alex Tizon tells us, is universal—his own happened to be about race. To counteract the steady diet of American television and movies that taught Tizon to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height, he turned outward. (“I had to educate myself on my own worth. It was a sloppy, piecemeal education, but I had to do it because no one else was going to do it for me.”) Tizon illuminates his youthful search for Asian men who had no place in his American history books or classrooms. And he tracks what he experienced as seismic change: the rise of powerful, dynamic Asian men like Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang, actor Ken Watanabe, and NBA starter Jeremy Lin. Included in this new edition of Big Little Man is Alex Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave”—2017’s best-read digital article. Published only weeks after Tizon’s death in 2017, it delivers a provocative, haunting, and ultimately redemptive coda. “A ruthlessly honest personal story and a devastating critique of contemporary American culture.”— The Seattle Times “Part candid memoir, part incisive cultural study, Big Little Man addresses—and explodes—the stereotypes of Asian manhood. Alex Tizon writes with acumen and courage, and the result is a book at once illuminating and, yes, liberating.”—Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl “This personal narrative of self-education and growth will engage any reader captivated by the sources of American, and Asian-American, manhood—its multitude of inheritances and prospects.”— Minneapolis Star Tribune An award-winning writer takes a groundbreaking look at the experience and psyche of the Asian American male. Alex Tizon landed in an America that saw Asian women as sexy and Asian men as sexless. Immigrating from the Philippines as a young boy, everything he saw and heard taught him to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height. His fierce and funny observations of sex and the Asian American male include his own quest for love during college in the 1980s, a tortured tutorial on stereotypes that still make it hard for Asian men to get the girl. Tizon writes: "I had to educate myself on my own worth. It was a sloppy, piecemeal education, but I had to do it because no one else was going to do it for me." And then, a transformation. First, Tizons growing understanding that shame is universal: that his own just happened to be about race. Next, seismic cultural changes from Jerry Yangs phenomenal success with Yahoo! Inc., to actor Ken Watanabes emergence in Hollywood blockbusters, to Jeremy Lins meteoric NBA rise. Finally, Tizons deeply original, taboo-bending investigation turns outward, tracking the unheard stories of young Asian men today, in a landscape still complex but much changed for the Asian American man. "Why do so many people find Asian women sexy but Asian men sexless? Alex Tizon's family emigrated from the Philippines when he was four. He quickly learned to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height. In movies and on television he saw Asian men as 'servants, villains, or geeks, one-dimensional, powerless, sneaky little men.' His observations of sex and the Asian American male -- as funny as they are fierce -- include the story of his own quest for love during college in the 1980s. It was a tortured tutorial on stereotypes that still make it hard for Asian men to get the girl. And then, a transformation. First, Tizon's growing understanding that shame is universal; that his own just happened to be about race. Next, seismic cultural changes--from Jerry Yang's phenomenal success with Yahoo! Inc., to actor Ken Watanabe's emergence in Hollywood blockbusters, to Jeremy Lin's meteoric NBA rise. Finally, Tizon's deeply original, taboo-bending investigation turns outward, tracking the unheard stories of young Asian men today, in a landscape many still find complex -- but that increasingly makes room for powerful, dynamic Asian American men"-- Provided by publisher "Why do so many people find Asian women sexy but Asian men sexless? Alex Tizon's family emigrated from the Philippines when he was four. He quickly learned to be ashamed of his face, his color, his physical size. In movies and on television he saw Asian men as 'servants, villains, or geeks, one-dimensional, powerless, sneaky little men.' His fierce and funny observations of sex and the Asian American male include the story of his own college life in the 1980s, a tortured tutorial on just how little sex appeal accrued to the Asian man. And then, two transformations. First, Tizon's growing understanding that shame is universal; that his own just happened to take racial shape. Next, seismic cultural changes--from Xiu Xiang's 2004 Olympic gold-winning sprint, to Jerry Yang's phenomenal success with Yahoo! Inc., to Keanu Reeves' leading-man status in The Matrix--that draw him out of his exile. Finally, Tizon's deeply original, taboo-bending investigation turns outward, tracking the unheard stories of young men today, in a landscape still complex but much changed for the Asian American man"-- Provided by publisher "A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's memoir, in the spirit of Richard Rodriquez's Hunger for Memory and Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler--an intimate look at the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian American male"-- Provided by publisher "A ... journalist's memoir in the spirit of Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of memory and Nathan McCall's Makes me wanna holler: an intimate look at the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian American male"--