Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American

by Vickie Nam

Overview

"In this fine book, Asian American girls speak up and speak out. They speak for themselves, to each other, and to the world. This honest, engaging anthology is important. It allows new voices to be heard and new stories to become part of our great American story."   — Mary Pipher, Ph.D, author of Reviving Opehlia

"A must-read for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider looking in." —Teen People

In this groundbreaking collection of personal writings, young Asian American girls come together for the first time and engage in a dynamic converstions about the unique challenges they face in their lives. Promoted by a variety of pressing questions from editor Vickie Nam and culled from hundreds of submission from all over the country, these revelatory essays, poems, and stories tackle such complex issues as dual identities, culture clashes, family matters, body image, and the need to find one's voice.

With a foreword by Phoebe Eng, as well as contributions from accomplished Asian American women mentors Janice Mirikitani, Helen Zia, Nora Okja Keller, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Elaine Kim, Patsy Mink, and Wendy Mink, Yell-Oh Girls! is an inspiring and much-needed resource for young Asian American girls.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060959449
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/31/2001
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.76(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Vickie Nam was most recently content/community producer at VOXXY, the L.A. — based interactive network for girls. She was formerly managing producer at AsianAvenue.com, news team coordinator at Teen People, and editor in chief of Blue Jean Magazine. Her work has appeared in Seventeen, Jump, and KoreAM Journal. Vickie lives in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Orientation: Finding the Way Home

The day after my high school graduation, I boarded a plane. Next stop, Korea. My parents waved good-bye with nervous yet hopeful smiles, and my mom yelled,"Behave yourself!" like she always did when I was flying somewhere to visit family friends or relatives.

My parents had enrolled me in a cultural immersion summer program -- a "discover your roots" pilgrimage, of sorts -- at Yonsei University in Seoul. For five weeks I lived in a dormitory with hundreds of other second-generation Korean American girls and guys in their late teens.

Week one of the program flew by, and not without knocking my self-confidence down a few notches. My language skills were poor, and I was having a difficult time adapting to the climate. I didn't know where to begin when I called my mother to tell her about my first days, but there was something I'd been dying to ask her ever since stepping off the plane at Kimpo International Airport. At the time I tried squeezing an explanation out of my grandmother, but she didn't seem to understand my question.

"Mom, what does 'gyo-po' mean?" Had I said hello to her yet? I couldn't remember.

"Gyo-po" is what the natives -- taxi drivers, waiters, saleswomen, and the like -- were calling me everywhere I went. I could tell that it was a noun, and I also noticed that people sometimes uttered the word quickly and impatiently in passing. But beyond these observations, I knew nothing.

My mother cleared her throat. "It means foreigner."

She asked me where I'dheard the expression. I told her, everywhere, and that gyo-po had become my nickname here in Seoul.

So that I didn't have to linger by the phone booth for too long, I got into the habit of writing down all of the things I needed to tell my parents in advance of calling them. It was boiling, inside and outside; the thick, soupy air felt hotter than my own breath. In a letter to my friend in the States, I told her that here you didn't move from one place to the next, you swam. Although I was ashamed to admit it, central air-conditioning was definitely one of the things I missed most.

"Oh, it means foreigner?" I echoed. I didn't have much else to say to my mom that day. Nothing on my list seemed important anymore.

So for the next two months, I was a gyo-po, a foreigner. Viewing the city streets from above, stringy black dots bobbed up and down and darted from side to side. On ground level, I noticed that it didn't matter that I looked like everybody else; I was still singled out for being different. The pictures that were taken of me my first day in Seoul tell an interesting story. Now, all I can see is that my Western stance, my Kodak camera, and my Doc Martens were dead giveaways; I might as. well have draped myself in an American flag. The thing is, and all of the other American-born kids agreed with this conjecture, even if we weren't wearing Western clothes, the natives still would have pegged us Americans. We joked constantly about our unique gyo-po status; this erased the sting of rejection by the Korean community. To the locals, we smelled funny, we talked funny, and we just didn't belong.

A few days before the program ended, one of my girlfriends and I were coming back from a long day of shopping. We wanted to stock up on all necessary foodstuffs, souvenirs, and rip-off Gucci handbags before going back to the States. Exhausted, we hailed a cab. It was too late before we found out that we'd hailed one of the few taxicabs in the city that didn't have an air-conditioner. But this wasn't the worst part.

The driver, a fifty-something man, glared at us in the rearview mirror. He was angry. Shaking his finger in the air, he grumbled, "You kids are not Korean, and your parents are traitors for having left their homeland."

He drove in circles around the Yonsei University campus, and my friend and I wondered if he was ever going to stop lecturing, or stop driving. We were terrified. We could accept that the man thought we were unappreciative, ill-mannered, stupid Twinkie kids (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), but was he eventually going to stop the car and turn us loose? My girlfriend grabbed my arm and whispered through the side of her mouth, "Do you think he's going to kidnap us and sell us into slavery?" I assured her that the driver would drop us off as soon as he was done bitching. But when we reached a red traffic light, I yanked the car door open and threw a couple bills over the seat. We jetted.

The previous few weeks had been filled with similar experiences. My friends in the program and I were kicked out of night clubs because there were "already too many gyo-pos" inside, received poor service at restaurants, were snubbed by women at clothing stores and salons -- in some cases, the discrimination we faced in Korea had been far more intense than anything we'd confronted in America. Even though our friendships were growing stronger, many of us couldn't wait to get back home.

But when I finally arrived home in Rochester, I remember weaving through crowds of people who were milling about the baggage claim. It just didn't feel like it was my life I was returning to. After being homesick for the warmth and security, I was depressed that it felt like I was visiting another foreign country.

YELL-Oh Girls!. Copyright © by Vickie Nam. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

What People are Saying About This

Claire S. Chow

"A diversity of younger Asian-American writers carrying the banner forward. I think this is great.

Margaret Lee

"A book like YELL-Oh Girls! would have let me know that I wasn't alone.

Elaine Mar

"Valuable not only for its [sharp] insights...as an inspiration to any young person seeking self-expression.

Editorial Reviews

"In this fine book, Asian American girls speak up and speak out. They speak for themselves, to each other, and to the world. This honest, engaging anthology is important. It allows new voices to be heard and new stories to become part of our great American story." — Mary Pipher, Ph.D, author of Reviving Opehlia

"In Vickie Nam's YELL-Oh Girls!, young Asian American girls. . . speak of their bicultural roots—feeling at home in no land, challenging family relationships made more difficult by cultural barriers, defining strong identities and believing in change. Come adolescence, this quite possibly could become [a] cultural bible." — aMagazine

"Readers…will be swept along by the authors' sincerity." — Booklist

"Exuberant, poignant, hard-hitting, raw with anger and honesty—these are voices that need to be heard. Once heard, they will be remembered. Go, girls!" — Chitra Divakaruni, author of The Mistress of Spices and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

"A must-read for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider looking in." — Teen People

"A diversity of younger Asian-American writers carrying the banner forward. I think this is great." — Claire S. Chow, author of Leaving Deep Water: The Lives of Asian American Women at the Crossroads of Two Cultures

"Thanks to this fine collection of writings, future generations of Asian-American girls need not feel so isolated." — Publishers Weekly

"[Vickie Nam] is determined to make heard the voices of Asian-American girls." — Time

"Finding your voice has to do with writing and practicing writing until you become attuned to your own rhythms and poetic sensibilities, until you write like yourself and no one else." — Marie G. Lee, author of Finding My Voice and Necessary Roughness

"YELL-Oh Girls! gives voice to an energetic group of young Asian-American women. The collection is alternately poignant and funny, tender and tough. The diversity of young voices and accompanying mentor pieces, written by various Asian-American women leaders-including journalist Helen Zia, novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and U.S. Representative Patsy Mink—belie the notion that any culture can have only one spokesperson. This book is valuable not only for its insights—which are sharp—but perhaps more importantly, as an inspiration to any young person seeking self-expression." — Elaine Mar, author of Paper Daughter

"A book like YELL-Oh Girls! would have let me know that I wasn't alone." — Margaret Lee, Ms. Magazine

“Bold, bitter and true…[the] testimonies of split identity collected here…are equally brave, whether gently bemused or heartbreakingly bewildered in tone. The energy in this debut…never lets up, and the ruckus is as affirming as it is rebellious.” — San Francisco Examiner

"[An] unflinchingly honest collection...[Yell-oh Girls!] is an excellent stepping-off point for thinking and talking about that 'something bigger'." — HonoluluAdvertiser.com

"Finally we have an anthology of writing by real Asian American girls that puts the lie to all those stereotypes. These girls have attitide, and they want their words to count. . . .A groundbreaking and important resource for girls, their parents, teachers, and others who care about young women's lives." — New Moon Network

From the Publisher

"Readers…will be swept along by the authors' sincerity."

Booklist

"A diversity of younger Asian-American writers carrying the banner forward. I think this is great."

Claire S. Chow

"Exuberant, poignant, hard-hitting, raw with anger and honesty—these are voices that need to be heard. Once heard, they will be remembered. Go, girls!"

Chitra Divakaruni

"YELL-Oh Girls! gives voice to an energetic group of young Asian-American women. The collection is alternately poignant and funny, tender and tough. The diversity of young voices and accompanying mentor pieces, written by various Asian-American women leaders-including journalist Helen Zia, novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and U.S. Representative Patsy Mink—belie the notion that any culture can have only one spokesperson. This book is valuable not only for its insights—which are sharp—but perhaps more importantly, as an inspiration to any young person seeking self-expression."

Elaine Mar

"In Vickie Nam's YELL-Oh Girls!, young Asian American girls. . . speak of their bicultural roots—feeling at home in no land, challenging family relationships made more difficult by cultural barriers, defining strong identities and believing in change. Come adolescence, this quite possibly could become [a] cultural bible."

aMagazine

"In this fine book, Asian American girls speak up and speak out. They speak for themselves, to each other, and to the world. This honest, engaging anthology is important. It allows new voices to be heard and new stories to become part of our great American story."

Mary Pipher

"A must-read for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider looking in."

Teen People

"[Vickie Nam] is determined to make heard the voices of Asian-American girls."

Time

"Finding your voice has to do with writing and practicing writing until you become attuned to your own rhythms and poetic sensibilities, until you write like yourself and no one else."

Marie G. Lee

"[Vickie Nam] is determined to make heard the voices of Asian-American girls."

Time

"Readers…will be swept along by the authors' sincerity."

Booklist

"A book like YELL-Oh Girls! would have let me know that I wasn't alone."

Margaret Lee

Bold, bitter and true…[the] testimonies of split identity collected here…are equally brave, whether gently bemused or heartbreakingly bewildered in tone. The energy in this debut…never lets up, and the ruckus is as affirming as it is rebellious.

San Francisco Examiner

"[An] unflinchingly honest collection...[Yell-oh Girls!] is an excellent stepping-off point for thinking and talking about that 'something bigger'."

HonoluluAdvertiser.com

"Finally we have an anthology of writing by real Asian American girls that puts the lie to all those stereotypes. These girls have attitide, and they want their words to count. . . .A groundbreaking and important resource for girls, their parents, teachers, and others who care about young women's lives."

New Moon Network

"[Vickie Nam] is determined to make heard the voices of Asian-American girls."

TIME.com

"[Vickie Nam] is determined to make heard the voices of Asian-American girls.

time.com

In an interview, editor Victoria Nam said that one of her goals for her anthology is to redefine and reclaim "yellow," a word usually used hatefully or stereotypically. With its blend of personal testimony and scholarship, this gathering of essays will achieve that empowering purpose.

bn.com

Gr 8 Up-Asian-American young women speak out in this anthology of stories and poetry about what it is like growing up in two cultures. The brief contributions are from high school and college students from all over the United States and Canada. They speak passionately of the lack of Asians and women in the history textbooks; of feeling foreign in America and in the country of their ancestors; of being laughed at and ridiculed simply for not looking "American"; of interracial dating; and of finding their own niche. Arranged by topics such as "Finding the Way Home," "Dolly Rage," and "Family Ties," each entry begins with some background about the writer and the work. The selections are interspersed with pieces by notable Asian-American women such as congresswoman Patsy Mink and writer Lois-Ann Yamanaka. The overall strength of the writing, and the need for this topic, makes this a worthy addition to YA collections.-DeAnn Tabuchi, San Anselmo Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal