Straight A's: Asian American College Students in Their Own Words ed. by Christine R. Yano and Neal K. Adolph Akatsuka (review)

This text, a collaboration between Christine R. Yano, Neal K. Adolph Akatsuka, and the Asian American Collective, explores the narratives of high-achieving Asian Americans at Harvard University, an institution currently embroiled in an energetic and contentious fight over affirmative action and racist events on campus. This book serves as a means to champion voices of those who have "played the game" and now are learning to survive what many would consider an "ideal" educational experience. The stories in the book engage with, and to a larger extent disrupt, dominant college experiences. The majority of the book is comprised of interview transcripts, musings, and other texts of Asian American undergraduates on several themes: family/class, race, sexuality, gender, intimacy, mental health, organizations, and extracurricular activities. Each theme is explored in a chapter with a combination of analysis and excerpts of student narratives, interviews, and writing. Presenting the narratives in raw form creates an intimate and close feel for the reader, which was the editors' intention.

In the introduction, both the editors and members of the collective advocate that this is not a book meant to take down the "model minority myth" or serve as a longitudinal ethnography on the Asian American experience. Rather, it is meant to take a nuanced look into a handful of unique lives within this particular sociopolitical and historical context. Using this in-depth approach allows readers to wrestle with what the editors call "Harvard Stories" (21). Chapter 1 explores common familial experiences: the constant fight between Western and Asian cultures, the politics of naming, familial roles, religiosity, and filial piety. Chapter 2 delves into race through stories related to finding common allies on campus, the self-denial and reclamation of Asian Americanness, and its intersections with politics, the body, and their peers. Commonly seen throughout the text is a fight for finding the "right" kind of Asian to be. Chapter 3 complicates this by arguing how intersectional identities are often in contention with one another. For some students, representation was a source of pride and frustration. In one case, a student discusses a terrifying account of how difficult it was to convince the university of the credibility of a threat to Asian Americans on campus from an internet stalker.

Chapter 4, a chapter on intimacy, centered around both the necessity and resistance towards interracial dating. Students also explained how rampant fetishization both through race and gender have altered how they navigate relationships with their partners. Chapter 5 focuses on mental health and how cultural norms, gender, and family dynamics muddle a student's ability to track down the causes of their feelings. Family is used as a medium for understanding coping mechanisms for students, intertwining it with stories of migration, sacrifice, and resilience. Other narratives also centered on the disconnection students felt with their elders regarding their future goals and struggles with eating disorders. Chapter 6 ruminates on ethnic student associations and their utility, purpose, and effect on one's sense of belonging. In conjunction with previous chapters, interviews and narratives wrestle with the residual effects of racializing student experiences. Opinions regarding organizations spread across the spectrum, with some regarding them as a suitable medium for finding their voice, and others feeling them to be a way to divide the Asian American community. In short, students found clubs to be a microcosm of understanding class, gender, and institutional prestige.

Chapter 7 broadens student experiences beyond ethnic organizations and looks at other extracurricular activities. Specifically, the editors interrogate the intense activity-driven atmosphere on Harvard's campus. In the introduction to the chapter, one of the overarching themes of the book is reiterated: "Straight A lives often mean type A involvement" (171). Embedded in this statement is a strained relationship between students and mitigating familial expectations, Eurocentricity, and anti...