Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

2025/01/30

It has been decided that Trump will serve as the next U.S. President. Harris was unable to become the "first president of Asian descent." It goes without saying that perspectives on identity politics and racism are extremely important in analyzing the reasons for Harris's defeat.

The author has published translations such as Between the World and Me and The Undocumented Americans. The former is a now-classic work by African American Ta-Nehisi Coates. The latter was written by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, a Hispanic author (who was herself an "undocumented immigrant" and a Harvard graduate); the fact that reviews appeared in the Yomiuri, Asahi, and Nikkei within about a month of the translation's publication shows how significant the issue of so-called illegal immigration is in American politics.

The original version of this book was published in 2020. In addition to winning the National Book Critics Circle Award, it gained a tremendous reputation, with the author being selected as one of TIME magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World." However, as the author herself states, Asians "don't even have the presence needed to be considered a real minority. We aren't even racial enough to be a symbol of anything. We are so post-racial we are like silicone."

The author also writes: "When we complain, Americans suddenly get a knowing look. Why are you so unhappy! You're the next whites! It's as if they're talking about us like iPads lined up on a production line." The "microaggressions" that Asians, as a model [=alibi] minority, are exposed to daily are precisely what give rise to minor feelings.

While this book is not only a sharp critique of American society and culture but also a Bildungsroman, the seven essays include one on "Bad English," presenting an antithesis to the use of "antiseptic English." As I noted in the translator's afterword, translating "the often stinging prose of this book—words that seem everyday but are tied to specific disciplines, or unexpected words and metaphors inserted for poetic effect..." was a truly challenging experience.

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Toshiho Ikeda

Keio University Press

250 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.