Book Club: Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu
Details
Hi everyone!
I came across this new book that’s been gaining a lot of traction. As an avid book reader, it would be lovely to go over this book (or maybe the topics and experiences it touches) together.
Ideally, I would love to gather other Asian-identifying women/femmes to go over this book.
There is no requirement to get this book immediately (you can check it out at your local library or purchase it from a local bookshop :)).
We can do a couple of things:
- Go over the synopsis and talk about our own experiences about being an Asian woman/femme
- Read a chapter of the book together
- Share whatever comes to mind in relation to each other
Here is the synopsis:
Elizabeth Zhang is well aware of her place in the world. She’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. While she’s never been the most beautiful or the most liked, she knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough—which she knows means she's just another boring Asian female—her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can’t figure out how this could have happened. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interesting?
At first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura’s hobbies are. All of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable person to Harvard. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot.
A spot that she knows she deserves after working so hard. A spot that she’ll simply have to take back.
Layered and subversive, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.