Rise is a love letter to and for Asian Americans--a
vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in
which our culture was forged and transformed, and a way to preserve
both the headlines and the intimate conversations that have shaped
our community into who we are today.
When the Hart-Celler
Act passed in 1965, opening up US immigration to non-Europeans, it
ushered in a whole new era. But even to the first generation of Asian
Americans born in the US after that milestone, it would have been
impossible to imagine that sushi and boba would one day be beloved by
all, that a Korean boy band named BTS would be the biggest musical
act in the world, that one of the most acclaimed and popular movies
of 2018 would be Crazy Rich Asians, or that we would have an Asian
American Vice President. And that’s not even mentioning the
creators, performers, entrepreneurs, execs and influencers who've
been making all this happen, behind the scenes and on the screen; or
the activists and representatives continuing to fight for equity,
building coalitions and defiantly holding space for our voices and
concerns. And still: Asian America is just getting started.
The timing could not
be better for this intimate, eye-opening, and frequently hilarious
guided tour through the pop-cultural touchstones and sociopolitical
shifts of the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and beyond. Jeff Yang, Phil Yu,
and Philip Wang chronicle how we’ve arrived at today’s
unprecedented diversity of Asian American cultural representation
through engaging, interactive infographics (including a step-by-step
guide to a night out in K-Town, an atlas that unearths historic Asian
American landmarks, a handy “Appreciation or Appropriation?”
flowchart, and visual celebrations of both our "founding fathers
and mothers" and the nostalgia-inducing personalities of each
decade), plus illustrations and graphic essays from major AAPI
artists, exclusive roundtables with Asian American cultural icons,
and more, anchored by extended insider narratives of each decade by
the three co-authors. Rise is an informative, lively, and
inclusive celebration of both shared experiences and singular
moments, and all the different ways in which we have chosen to come
together.