An All Ages Reading List to Combat Anti-Asian RacismLike this list

47 items

• Minor Feelings

  An Asian American Reckoning

  Hong, Cathy Park,

  Add Minor Feelings to your for later shelf

  For adults. A unique personal, cultural, and historical perspective of the exclusion and stereotyping of Asian Americans. Korean American author, Hong, provides a ruthlessly honest look at the results of being marginalized while being told…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Not Fit to Stay

  Public Health Panics and South Asian Exclusion

  Wallace, Sarah Isabel,

  Add Not Fit to Stay to your for later shelf

  For adults. This UBC Press publication is a meticulously researched and startling documentation of how physicians, union leaders, civil servants, journalists, and politicians have used unsubstantiated public health claims to fabricate…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Being Chinese in Canada

  the Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging

  Dere, William Ging Wee, 1948 or 1949-

  Add Being Chinese in Canada to your for later shelf

  For adults. A voice for generations of silenced families who were broken apart by racist immigration "head tax" policies set up to destroy the lives of those who had just finished building this country's railroad. Author-activist William…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Moon Cakes in Gold Mountain

  From China to the Canadian Plains

  Dawson, J. Brian (John Brian), 1948-

  Add Moon Cakes in Gold Mountain to your for later shelf

  For adults. A vivid portrayal of everyday life for Chinese settlers in Western Canada, often in the face of violent prejudice, only to make incredible contributions to the same communities that kept them on the outside.

• Patterns of Racism

  Attitudes Towards Chinese and Japanese in Alberta 1920-1950

  Palmer, Howard

  Add Patterns of Racism to your for later shelf

  For adults. At the time this 20-page essay from our Local History collection was written, 40 years ago, hostility towards Asian-Canadians was recognized mainly as a British Columbia problem. This thesis aimed to expose that Alberta had its…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Race, Racialization and Antiracism in Canada and Beyond

  Fuji Johnson, Genevieve

  Add Race, Racialization and Antiracism in Canada and Beyond to your for later shelf

  For adults. An expansive work with contributions from a range of perspectives, which acknowledges the troubling systemic racism still present in Canada today, and offers suggestions on how to address the issues.

• Sigh, Gone

  A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit in

  Tran, Phuc

  Add Sigh, Gone to your for later shelf

  For adults. Tran’s coming-of-age memoir explores his bewildering experiences of racism as a Vietnamese immigrant against the hairspray-and-synthesizer backdrop of the '80s.

• "Unraveling the Model Minority Stereotype

  Listening to Asian American Youth

  Lee, Stacy J.

  Add "Unraveling the Model Minority Stereotype to your for later shelf

  For adults. Stacy Lee gives Asian American high school students the platform to express their views on the stereotypes they face, and the inter-ethnic dynamics they experience every day.

• We Gon' Be Alright

  Notes on Race and Resegregation

  Chang, Jeff

  Add We Gon' Be Alright to your for later shelf

  For adults. Jeff Chang's illuminating essays combine deep reporting and personal stories to investigate issues of racial inequity and re-segregation in America, and the changing ideas of Asian American identity.

• Obasan

  Kogawa, Joy

  Add Obasan to your for later shelf

  For adults. Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.

• America Is in the Heart

  Bulosan, Carlos

  Add America Is in the Heart to your for later shelf

  For adults. This classic semi-autobiographical novel follows a Filipino migrant laborer from his life in the rural Philippines to the hardship and racial violence of 30s America, and his work to organize labor movements for better working…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Secret Identities

  The Asian American Superhero Anthology

  Yang, Jeff

  Add Secret Identities to your for later shelf

  For adults. In Secret Identities, Asian comic creators twist the typical superhero conventions and write about the Japanese American internment, the Vietnam airlift, the murder of Vincent Chin, and the incarceration of Dr. Wen Ho Lee.

• Lives of the Family

  Stories of Fate and Circumstance

  Chong, Denise,

  Add Lives of the Family to your for later shelf

  For adults. Denise Chong explores the lives of the earliest Chinese settlers in the Ottawa region amidst the backdrop of the Exclusion Act, Japanese occupation of China, and the rise of communism.

• The Making of Asian America

  A History

  Lee, Erika

  Add The Making of Asian America to your for later shelf

  For adults. A fresh, bold perspective on the varied roles Asian immigrants and their descendants have played in American society, and how Asian American life has developed throughout its rich history.

• Big Little Man

  An Asian American Memoir

  Tizon, Alex,

  Add Big Little Man to your for later shelf

  For adults. Tizon’s media-inspired shame about his face, skin color, and height fueled his search for Asian men who had no place in his history books – powerful, dynamic men like Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang, actor Ken Watanabe, and NBA…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Great Fortune Dream

  The Struggles and Triumphs of Chinese Settlers in Canada, 1858-1966

  Lai, David Chuenyan

  Add Great Fortune Dream to your for later shelf

  For adults. A history of the Chinese in Canada, including racism and discrimination toward the Chinese community, their successes and contributions to Canadian society, and how the Canadian government has responded through policy to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• On Gold Mountain

  the One-hundred-year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

  See, Lisa

  Add On Gold Mountain to your for later shelf

  For adults. Lisa See has constructed a sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world.

• They Called Us Enemy

  Takei, George

  Add They Called Us Enemy to your for later shelf

  For teens. Star Trek’s George Takei writes of his childhood imprisonment in an American internment camp during World War II in this graphic novel memoir.

• American Born Chinese

  Yang, Gene Luen

  Add American Born Chinese to your for later shelf

  For teens. New kid Jin Wang’s story intertwines with two others with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable.

• American Panda

  Chao, Gloria

  Add American Panda to your for later shelf

  For teens. Taiwanese-American teenager Mei is being pressured by her parents to become a doctor, but she can’t bring herself to tell them that she has a very different life in mind for herself.