Spring Break
Writer gives students glimpse into his culture
Max Lemanowicz
Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: News
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As a part of his lecture, Wong discussed his search for Asian-American writing---he claims he taught this branch of literature to himself during college---his novels "Homebase" and "American Knees" and gave attendees a preview of the upcoming film "AMERICANese"--a film adaptation of his novel.
Kimberly Baker-Flowers, chief diversity officer at ECU, introduced Wong before his lecture.
"Wong has a lot of information to share and we should all enjoy it and take advantage of this opportunity to learn about the rise of Asian-American Literature," Baker-Flowers said.
From a very young age Wong knew he wanted to be a writer, but it wasn't until he reached the age of 19 that he truly knew he wanted to pursue the art of writing. Enrolled as a pre-med major, he said that students in the pre-med program also had to choose a secondary major, so he chose English.
"I knew I had to do what I wanted to do first," Wong said. "When I was a young high school student, I was highly influenced by Thomas Wolfe. All of his books involved angst-ridden characters who were often depressed and somewhat angered."
Wong cited that he knew that a Chinese-American wanting to grow up to be Thomas Wolfe---an American born writer out of Asheville, N.C.---was unique.
"It was very tough for me at first, especially to tell my conservative Chinese-American father my dreams of writing. Especially since I think he planned on me becoming a doctor," Wong said.
A family friend of Wong's went so far as to leave him a trust fund in his will, in order for Wong to go for a doctorate degree.
"The family friend of ours said that the money was only for if I went to receive a doctorate degree," Wong said. "I knew this left the option open for me to pursue a doctoral degree, but first I wanted to pursue an M.F.A. in creative writing."
Around this time Wong, began his lifelong journey of learning about Asian-American literature. Studying at UC-Berkeley, Wong searched libraries for Asian-American writers, using the old-fashioned card catalogs, but found nothing.
"In my college years, we only read … dead British writers and UC-Berkeley was so conservative that they wouldn't even allow American literature courses to count for graduation requirements," Wong said. "I decided that I was going to major in Asian-American literature outside of the university."
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