The former speech writer for President Bill Clinton will soon come out with his second book, A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream, reports Northwest Asian Weekly.
“I reflect a lot on the mix of perceived threat and opportunity that accompanies China’s rise, and how those perceptions influence how we Chinese Americans are understood — either as people with enviable and sometimes mysterious power (Tiger Mom, anyone?) or as people with menacing and perhaps dangerous influence (Wen Ho Lee, anyone?),” said Eric Liu.
“To put it simply: America makes Chinese Americans, but China does not make American Chinese. And it doesn’t want to. That’s America’s advantage.”
You can read Eric’s thoughts about writing for Bill Clinton, how his ideas on Asian identity have changed and his strongest memories of growing up Chinese in Northwest Asian Weekly.