Hao: Stories by Ye Chun

Just like its simple Chinese brush painting cover, Hao is full of spare but elegant writing, full of stories of mothers and their children, full of Chinese culture, some set in China, others in the US. 

Hao 好 means ‘good’ in Chinese. The character is made up of 女 (woman, nǚ) and 子 (baby or child, zǐ). Does it mean that it’s good for a woman to have a child? Or does it refer to the relationship between mother and child? Whatever meaning assigned to this word “hao”, it’s the only word that a character in the first story, Stars, can utter after a stroke. 

“It must have survived to tell her that she has ruined her life by saying hao when she should have said bu hao. She has compromised and strived for nothing.”

I love the way Ye Chun brings the Chinese language into her stories, in the title story, the character Qingxin has to copy the slogan 毛主席万岁 or “May Chairman Mao live ten thousand years” 1,000 times a day to “atone” for her husband’s suicide. One day, she writes the word 无 instead of 万, changing the meaning to “live zero years”.  

In this collection, no one is really doing well, their situations are more 不 好 bu hao than 好. 

“People say hao when their eyes are marred with suspicion and dread. They say hao when they are tattered inside.”

A beautiful and haunting collection. 

All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim

This book by Bay Area author Lim really did hit many of the right notes for me. It’s a sweet and loving queer romance, starring Quito Cruz, who plays at a piano bar in Manhattan, and Emmett Aoki, movie star. They were friends and choir mates in high school but haven’t spoken in years. 
Until Quito’s dad (the high school choir teacher) tells Quito that he’s invited Emmett to perform at his retirement fundraising concert. 

Loved the focus on music (choir, piano bar, musical theater, and more!). It’s a love letter to music, really, as well as to immigrant culture – Quito is Filipino-American and Emmett is half-Japanese, but as the story is told from Quito’s POV, it focuses more on the Fil-Am culture (and the food! Quito’s dad is quite the cook!). 

I made the mistake of finishing this book while waiting for the kids’ aikido class to finish. Luckily I was reading in the car, and not in the waiting area (lol), because I kept tearing up and choking back the sobs. It was worth all the tears, let me tell you. 

Lim has a new book out later this year, called Karaoke Queen. Can’t wait to read it!