I'm Not Chinese: The Journey From
Resentment to Reverence
"The first thing you need to know is I’m not Chinese. My name is Raymond Wong and I stopped being Chinese at the age of five."
Raymond Wong wants to forget his past: a conniving and controlling Chinese mother, a father who hasn’t so much as written him a letter in twenty-eight years, a stepfather who never sees him as a son, the pain of being an outcast in his own family. Raymond journeys back to Hong Kong with the mother he has always pushed away, a woman who represents everything he wants to disown. He meets a father he doesn’t recognize and encounters a people and a country as foreign as the Cantonese he cannot understand.
I’m Not Chinese: The Journey from Resentment to Reverence is about a man who has spent his life running from his culture, his family, himself—and what happens when he finally stops running.
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Reviews
"This book made me assess my own relationship with my parents, wondering what important history I have missed because of my own closed eyes."
Katherine Pickett
Owner of Pop Editorial Services and author of Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro
"I’m Not Chinese is a deeply personal portrait full of heart, humor, and compassion."
Steve Brannon
Editor, Small Print Magazine
"(The Book) dovetails with many of the best memoirs I've read that show us the transnational contours of Asian American identity."
Stephen Sohn
Book Reviewer, Asian American Literature Fans
Awards, Media, Conferences, and publications:
The Truest thing is dedicated with respect to my wife, quyen, and her father, De Huynh.
Book Review of “179 Ways to Save a Novel” in Small Print Magazine. Feb 27, 2018
Book Review of “Several Short SEntences About Writing” in Small Print Magazine. Feb 25, 2018
Buying the Wrong Car -- Article in The Penny Hoarder. Aug 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW -- by Charse Yun For Blue Lyra Review. Nov 1, 2016
We Need Training To Survive Active Shooter Emergencies IN San Diego Union-Tribune. Dec 11, 2015
A series of letters to my deceased father is included in a nonfiction anthology, Songs of Ourselves: America's Internal Landscape, from Blue Heron Book Works. December 1, 2015. Available at indiebound
BOOK REVIEW by Maggie Trapp from UC Berkeley in Gloom Cupboard. JULY 28, 2015
Small print magazine book review of "Lifespan of a Fact" JUly 18, 2015
2015 San Diego Book Awards Co-winner in "memoir." June 20, 2015 U-t list of winners
Author Describes Journey from Rejecting to Embracing Heritage in I'm Not Chinese by Kristina Houck in the Del Mar Times. June 9, 2015
San Diego Living Interview by Marc Bailey. Feb 2, 2015. The link is no longer active and I’m searching for another resource for the interview.
DIVIDED A MEMOIR EXCERPT IN MARATHON LITERARY REVIEW, THE JOURNAL FOR ARCADIA UNIVERSITY'S MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM. JAN 28, 2015
SDSU Writers' Conference Interview. January 23-25, 2015
THE GOLDEN AGE OF PUBLISHING KPBS RADIO INTERVIEW WITH LITERARY AGENT, CHIP MACGREGOR. JAN 22, 2015
Hate (Page 24) A Memoir Excerpt in Segue, the Literary Journal of Miami University. Dec 18, 2014
A REVIEW OF RAYMOND M. WONG'S I'M NOT CHINESE BY STEPHEN SOHN, ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE FANS. NOV 1, 2014
PROLOGUE AUDIO RECORDING BY T.G. LAFREDO. OCT 29, 2014
AUTHOR EMBRACES LOST CULTURE INTERVIEW BY JOHN WILKENS, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE. OCT 4, 2014
I'm Not Chinese interview by Linda Loegel, Author/Blogger. Sept 21, 2014
Foreign A Memoir Excerpt in Small Print Magazine. Raymond Wong Memoir Released. July 14, 2014
Discussion Questions
1. What resentments are evident in this narrator from the prologue?
2. In this memoir the narrator embarks on a trip to Hong Kong and mainland China. What inner journey does he take on?
3. At the book’s beginning, the narrator is ambivalent about Quyen, the woman he is dating. What shifts his views about relationships and marriage?
4. Take a look at the chapter, “Hate." What is the implication about human nature?
5. Go to the chapter, "Reverence." What is the narrator’s epiphany?
6. A motif or repeating theme weaves through this memoir. It relates to how the mother sees Hong Kong and mainland China. What is this motif?
7. In the chapter, "Wounds," why is the narrator upset?
8. The narrator’s mom married to stay in America. How do you view her actions in the context of this book?
9. What does this story suggest about the plight of African Americans who to some extent still live in two worlds, one white and one black?
10. If we are a country of immigrants, what does it mean to be an American?