March
1, 2002
Author
Mei Ng to Give Reading March 6
Mei Ng, whose writing
has been likened to that of Amy Tan and Gish Jen, will read from
her Asian American coming-of-age novel, Eating Chinese Food
Naked, Wednesday, March 6, at 4 pm in the library's Stimson
Room. Lynn Karpen of the New York Times has described the
book as a "funny and affecting first novel [that] is so thoroughly
involved with love and food that the two often seem inextricably
intertwined." Ng's appearance is part of the MHC English
department's spring series of readings by contemporary writers
and Asian American Awareness Month programming. A book signing
will follow her reading.
Jennifer Ho, visiting
instructor in English, is having students in her course Growing
Up in Asian America read Eating Chinese Food Naked this
semester; she also included the novel on her syllabus for the
seminar Coming-of-Age in Asian America: An Examination of Asian
American Novels and Narratives, which she taught last spring.
"The student response to the novel has been overwhelming"
says Ho. "Students seem to relate to the main character and
the treatment of her emerging sexuality." Mary C. Yang '04,
the SAW mentor in Ho's class, has high praise for Eating Chinese
Food Naked and Ng's writing, noting, "The novel was amazing
because it resonated so much with an honesty that can't be forgotten.
The differing struggles and tension within the book showed that
there are so many sides to the same story, and the fact that Ng
can tell them all and do it well astounds me. This is definitely
one of the books I will read continually for the rest of my life."
The novel tells the
story of Ruby Lee, a recent Columbia University graduate who returns
home to Queens, New York, to stay temporarily with her parents.
The family lives in the four rooms behind Lee's Hand Laundry,
which is owned by Franklin, Lee's father. Within these close
quarters, Ruby struggles with issues of identity and her relationship
with her family and the world at large. As far as the unusual
title goes, Karpen offers some insight: "Sex and cooking
are the only things Ruby is confident about, but she prefers picking
up strangers to settling down with her adoring boyfriend,"
she writes. "In the back of the laundry, in the Lees'
private quarters, there is no kissing, no touching—indeed,
very little talking. As a child, Ruby was shocked to learn that
American families kissed hello and goodbye; later she was seduced
by the wonder and comfort of feeling hands and lips and now she
cannot slake her appetite for them. To Ruby, the act of eating
Chinese food naked is both a routine final stage in her lovemaking
and a metaphor for her belief that her parents can read her every
thought. Ruby's presence in their lonely household does effect
a change, albeit a painfully slow one. But Mei Ng's novel
is itself anything but painful; it conveys the complexities of
family life with vibrant color and luminosity."
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