facebook icon facebook icon facebook icon
  • About
  • ADS
  • Masthead
    • Editorial Board
  • Submission
  • Subscribe
The Wellesley News -
  • News
    • Contract ratified by Wellesley’s Maintenance and Service Employees Union
      Contract ratified by Wellesley’s Maintenance and Service Employees Union
    • News in Brief
      News in Brief
    • Wellesley adapts to end of race conscious admissions
      Wellesley adapts to end of race conscious admissions
    • Senate Report
    • News in Brief
  • Features
    • Professor Spotlight: Dr. Faisal Ahmed
      Professor Spotlight: Dr. Faisal Ahmed
    • Spotlight: New Professor Kathryn Winner
      Spotlight: New Professor Kathryn Winner
    • Spotlight: New Professor Lucia Nhamo ’11
      Spotlight: New Professor Lucia Nhamo ’11
    • Humans of Wellesley
    • Archives
  • Opinions
    • France’s Abaya Ban Unveils Its Own Misogyny
      France’s Abaya Ban Unveils Its Own Misogyny
    • Editorial: In defense of affirmative action
      Editorial: In defense of affirmative action
    • I am an NCAA champion: we should end college recruiting
      I am an NCAA champion: we should end college recruiting
    • Editorials
    • Letters to Editors
  • Arts
    • The SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes: What’s happening in Hollywood?
      The SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes: What’s happening in Hollywood?
    • Digging into Hozier’s Unreal Unearth: “De Selby (Part 1)” and the Population of Loss
      Digging into Hozier’s Unreal Unearth: “De Selby (Part 1)” and the Population of Loss
    • Summer Releases to Help Usher in Fall
      Summer Releases to Help Usher in Fall
  • Sports
    • Gauff and Richardson Shatter Expectations
      Gauff and Richardson Shatter Expectations
    • Student Athlete of the Month: Kennedy Mayo
      Student Athlete of the Month: Kennedy Mayo
    • No image
      What even is a BORG and why does it matter?
  • Multimedia
    • Photo of the Week
      Photo of the Week
    • “Stronger Together” Rally with Chelsea Clinton
      “Stronger Together” Rally with Chelsea Clinton
    • College Government Vice President 2016 End of the Year Report
      College Government Vice President 2016 End of the Year Report
    • Podcasts
    • The Wellesley Snooze
  • Projects
      • The News in Conversation
    • About
      • Contact
      • Join the News
      • Masthead
      • Editorial Board
    By Ann Zhao Arts, Books Before Boys, ReviewsMarch 22, 2022

    A smart satire for white-man-haters (Books Before Boys review)

    Books Before Boys is a curated list of reviews, written by Ann Zhao. Graphic courtesy of Kalie Holford.

    Cover of “Disorientation” by Elaine Hsieh Chou. Image courtesy of the publisher.

    After reading “The Love Hypothesis” and “A Brush with Love,” I admit I might have begun to romanticize grad school a little bit. I feel like I kind of have to, seeing as I plan on going in the future, but Elaine Hsieh Chou’s “Disorientation” was a scathing reminder that academia is not all fun romantic adventures. 

    As a Ph.D. student in her final year, Ingrid Yang just wants to get through her grueling dissertation on Xiao-Wen Chou, a Chinese American poet. Once this is all over, she’ll never have to read “Chinese-y” things again. And then Ingrid discovers a peculiar note in the archives, and she’s taken down a rabbit hole of discoveries that threaten everything she’s known about Chou, about herself and about her university’s East Asian Studies department.

    I want to make it clear that “Disorientation” is a satire. Going into the book, if you don’t read it with that knowledge, you may feel very confused and very betrayed by what is going on. Ingrid is a painfully clueless heroine, unaware of both the microaggressions and the blatant racism that happens around her, unable to see past the surface level of anything. 

    (That’s what this book is really about, by the way — the twenty-first century East Asian experience.) 

    Ingrid scoffs at other Asian women trying to make a difference in the academic world and constantly seeks the approval of white men. She is a caricature of a person. But that’s the point. Through Ingrid’s unknowing eyes, we’re able to truly grasp the magnitude of her situation on our own as readers, as the people around her are just as much the product of the society we live in that values East Asians when desirable and pushes them aside when not. 

    Ingrid doesn’t recognize any of these people’s true qualities at the start of her story. She’s mostly just annoyed by her leftist activist nemesis with a superiority complex, barely listening to a word she says. She’s dutifully attached to her fiancé with an Asian fetish. She treats her asshole of an advisor with far too much respect and trust. She goes about her life, doing what she’s told, and when she starts to find out things and her worldview begins to shift, she tries to deny it all, suppressing it with a concerningly addictive, possibly hallucinogenic over-the-counter allergy medicine.

    Ingrid’s growth as a character comes slowly, so much so that by the end, you might wonder how on earth she managed to get there with the amount of denial that she experiences in the first half of the novel. I was yelling at her in my head for so long, and yet I couldn’t stop reading. Because I wanted her to learn — I needed her to learn — that anti-Asian racism is real and that it affects her. 

    Elaine Hsieh Chou’s debut is a smart, witty, infuriatingly frustrating work, one that I’m sure to be dwelling on for a while. This novel is perfect for any East Asian who feels like academia is going to swallow them alive. 

    “Disorientation” comes out on March 22, 2022. A million thanks to the publisher, Penguin Press, for the early review copy.

    Tags

    art at wellesleybooksbooks before boysWellesley

    Share on

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Google +
    • LinkedIn
    • Email
    Previous article“Fun Home” Provides Catharsis and Leaves Room for Ambiguity
    Next articleMove over, “Mona Lisa Smile,” the Wellesley community has a new inaccurate fictional portrayal of campus to talk about (Books Before Boys review)

    You may also like

    The SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes: What’s happening in Hollywood?

    Digging into Hozier’s Unreal Unearth: “De Selby (Part 1)” and the Population of Loss

    Summer Releases to Help Usher in Fall

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    The Wellesley News

      SECTIONS

    • News
    • Features
    • Opinions
    • Arts
    • Sports
    • Multimedia
    • Projects
    • About

      ABOUT

    • Contact
    • Join the News
    • Masthead
    • Editorial Board

      RESOURCES

    • Advertising
    • Submission
    • Subscribe

      CONTACT US

    • Contact
    COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE WELLESLEY NEWS