How To American: An Immigrant’s Guide to Disapointing Your Parents by Jimmy O. Yang AudioBook: 6 hours, 5 min Hardback Book: 240 pages
Jimmy O. Yang and his family immigrated from China to the United States when he was 14 years old. He didn’t speak a lot of English when he got here, his mother never learned to speak English or understand it fluently and eventually she moves back to Shanghai to go back to a good executive position whereas in America she was reduced to lowly positions because of her lack of grasp on the English language. Jimmy’s first culture shock was when he went to his first gym class. Gym was his favorite class back home and exceedingly easy but when he got L.A. he teased mercilessly for wearing tighty whities (briefs instead of boxers) and terrified of being gang-raped like he had seen in American Prison films back in Shanghai, when the guys in his gym class semi-circle around him like a pack of ravaging wolves and tell him to pull down his pants. Jimmy was freaking out but he was outnumbered and didn’t know what to do, he might be able to fight 3 of them if he was lucky but, there were way more than 3 of them. He slowly began to obey when one of the guys said, “Hey Man! What are you doing! Don’t pull them down that far, you just want them to sag and show the tops of your underwear that is the style here. Those tighty whites have got to go. Get you some boxers.” And that is how he went from being terrified to being in fashion with the other guys in his school. He learned to speak English by watching the BET channel on cable. After which he made some friends, Pershians, Black, and Hispanic with the occasional Asian – he didn’t want to limit his chances at fitting in by hanging exclusively with other Asians and becoming unapproachable in the eyes of the other students, plus, there weren’t that many Chinese kids at his school, mostly Koreans. He tells how his life went from then until now. Lots of funny events,. Like the rap group called the Yellow Panthers that he and his crew (the Persians, Hispanic, and Black friends mentioned above) formed, how he learned to beat box and come up with his own tunes which got a little play though he admits he wasn’t very good at but wanted to be a rapper so bad he kept trying. He did actually sell one of the rap tunes he wrote himself to a guy that made porno films who had heard some of his tunes and particularly liked one of them and paid Jimmy to use it in one of his films. He talks about living in L.A. and surviving his mother leaving him, his brother and his Dad to move back to China for work, he shares so many hilarious stories about the jobs he had over the years, his one-time dream job – to be a D.J. in a stripper bar he was able to achieve, then how he found his passion doing stand-up comedy. His parents wanted him to go to college, get a degree in Economics and work on Wall St. but that wasn’t his path. It was hard for him to tell them that he didn’t want to go to college, he didn’t want to study economics – he wanted to become a stand-up comedian. His Dad said, “But Jimmy you are not funny.” Always getting the unbridled true sentiments from his parents, jimmy didn’t let that stop him, he kept pursuing his dream of doing stand-up and he began to go to comedy clubs paying $5.00 for 5 minutes on stage to the club owners. He invited his old boss from the stip club for his first paid stand-up comedy gig and the owner brought several of the strippers to the show. They all hooted and hollered for him and the owner of the strip club remained a close friend and supporter as were the strippers who thought he was the most honest and kind person they knew. Jimmy eventually did stints on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and other shows eventually ending up with a recurring starring role on the HBO series, “Silicon Valley.” There are so many funny moments described here and Jimmy gives a true look at the immigrant experience and describes for the reader what he had to go through when visiting Mexico with his buddies and trying to get back across the border before he got his green card. He nearly got deported. He talks about what he had to go through to become an American citizen. Fun read and very informative on the immigrant experience and how to make it in Hollywood complete with recommended agent and agency who got him primo roles from the git go. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something that will make you laugh and go hmmmm at the same time. It is an illuminating look into how Americans are perceived from a Chinese immigrant’s perspective – he was very disappointed in the fast food restaurants in America – in Shanghai they also serve fish dishes and duck and here in America where the restaurants originated they don’t! Funny tales about bringing his lunch from home that was made up of homecooked Asian cuisine while his fellow students were gorging on French fires, and burgers, pizza, etc. while he had grown up on the food and liked it that his Dad cooked for them, it got many odd looks from others in the school cafeteria. Lots of amusing tales here. I highly recommend this one. Lots of laugh out loud humor and humor found in serious situations.
- Shirley J.
No comments:
Post a Comment