As an American of Korean slope Vic...

As an American of Korean slope Vickie Nam grew up feeling invisible and trying "to make faculty of perception of the contradictions of being Asian, American, and a girl." She would stay up late at night and awed curiosity if she were the single girl struggling with her identity and material part image or scheming how to mingle into a predominantly white denomination All teen literature and television point outs were "Euro-American"-oriented, so she decided to speak revealed and inspire other Asian girls "to scream like hell."

In the 297-page "YELL-Oh Girls!" Nam compiles stories, essays and metrical compositions written by and for young Asian American women Nam deliberately avoids using the boundary "yellow" because of its racist connotations. Instead, she writes, "'YELL-Oh' is a call to action."

Many Asian American girls put up with humiliating labels like "china dolls," "geisha girls" and "ornamental Oriental," writes Nam. Jenny Yan, 19 challenges some of these stereotypes in a poem: "I am not / your China doll / your doll / My face is made of colored muscle and fat / Not of porcelain / Or colored ecclesiastics / My lips are not sealed close up / ... I demand my right / I demand to be heard."

In her piece of poetry "Two," June Kim, a 19-year-old learner at Columbia University in recently made known York City, expresses her frustration with living in dual cultures: Korean and American. "Raised in sum of two units separate cultures / Growing up in a world with customs / Familiar at family circle and foreign in society / Fighting, fearing, / Fitting into sum of two units places / Two cultures / Or maybe none."

A first-generation Indian American, Kamala Nair, 19 launched a "crusade" to conform to a predominantly white instruct setting. In her essay "Learning to have affection for My Skin," Nair writes that, when she was younger, she wished she had "blond hair and glum eyes." She overcame her issues on interacting with children of other ethnic assign places tos and learning about her heritage. "I knew I would not at all be prom queen, but I realized that my classmates actually look up toed me more when I finally learned to like myself, brown skin and all."

"Yell-Oh Girls!" is published by means of HarperCollins Publishers in New York City.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Community Renewal Society

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group