Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays

“America doesn’t want us as a visible native minority. They want us to keep our place as Americanized foreigners ruled by immigrant loyalty. But never having been anything else but born here, I’ve never been foreign and resent having foreigners telling me my place in America and America telling me I’m foreign. There’s no denial or rejection of Chinese culture going on here, just the recognition of the fact that Americanized Chinese are not Chinese Americans and that Chinese Americans cannot be understood in the terms of either Chinese or American culture, or some ‘chow mein/spaghetti’ formula of Chinese and American cultures, or anything else you’ve seen and loved in Charlie Chan.” —from “Confessions of a Chinatown Cowboy”

• Frank Chin, Author

• “Frank Chin is destined to go down in Asian American literary history. To the many readers he provokes and excites, the question is what does ‘go down’ mean?”
  —Stephen H. Sumida
• “Uncompromising; impudent; in-your-face; Frank Chin is one of the great essayists of our time.”
  —Ishmael Reed
• “Chin gathers lost legends, children’s stories, personal histories, tall tales, and polemics and cobbles them together into a startling, comprehensive theory of Asian American culture with an ancient past and a global reach.... The only fearless writer in Asian America is as vital now as he ever was. When the melting pot boils over again, Asian American literature will find itself back at the crossroads. Frank Chin, the trickster-devil, will be waiting.”
  —The Village Voice