Books by Gene Luen Yang
Dragon Hoops
by Gene Luen Yang
***2021 Michael L. Printz Honor Book (for Young Adult Literature)***
The author has humorously inserted himself into this graphic novel about basketball: “I’m just not a sports kind of guy. I’m a story kind of guy”. Yang knows where he stands with his favourite stories: heroes are heroic, villains are villainous, and good triumphs in the end. But then he realises that there is a compelling story right there at the California high school where he teaches. When a person as young as 14 steps onto the court in front of crowds, on television, they don’t know if they will make memories that will make them proud or make them cringe. Unlike in superhero comics, in sport you do not know what the outcome will be. This graphic novel celebrates the courage it takes to step into the unknown.
“It’s very cool. I think it’s better known in the United States because of the splash he made with a book called American Born Chinese.” Read more...
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Historian
Boxers and Saints
by Gene Luen Yang
Boxers and Saints is a graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion, the anti-foreign, anti-Christian revolt that shook China from 1899-1901, not long before the last Chinese dynasty fell in 1911. Famously, the Boxers believed that they were invulnerable to bullets. The two volumes need to be read one after the other, as they tell the story from different sides.
Interviews where books by Gene Luen Yang were recommended
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1
Aftershock: Essays from Hong Kong
by Holmes Chan (editor) -
2
Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang
by James Millward -
3
Forbidden Memory: Tibet during the Cultural Revolution
by Susan Chen (translator) & Tsering Woeser -
4
Beijing from Below: Stories of Marginal Lives in the Capital's Center
by Harriet Evans -
5
Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai
by Jim Carter -
6
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
Best China Books of 2020, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Best China Books of 2020, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
All eyes are on China as it occupies an increasingly important role on the world stage and its economic growth continues to barrel on. But behind the Chinese Communist Party’s apparent competence lies a deep insecurity about its relationship with its own citizens, particularly those who question its right to rule them. American historian and Sinologist Jeffrey Wasserstrom picks the best books of 2020 on China.
