American Knees"You won't even be Chinese after your wife's attorney gets through with you", Raymond Ding's attorney tells him after Darleen has filed for divorce. Raymond wonders if you can be a lapsed Chinese the way you can be a lapsed Catholic. After all, divorce is a number one failing for a number one son - who hasn't even gotten around to starting a family after seven years of marriage. What can Raymond say in his own defense - "I used to be Chinese, but my wife got custody of my ethnicity"? But extricating himself from wedlock is only the beginning of Raymond's problems. When he meets beautiful half-Japanese Aurora Crane, he learns that it's impossible to negotiate the shoals of modern romance without banging his shins on questions of race, culture, and identity he thought he'd left behind in the schoolyard ("What are you, Chinese, Japanese, or American knees?"). Equally uncomfortable with the expectations that family and society, Asian and non-Asian alike, have heaped upon them, he and Aurora try desperately - and comically - to fall out of love. |
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99 Aurora affirmative action answer Asian American Asian women Audrey Hepburn Aurora asked Betty Betty Nguyen Betty's Bill boys Brenda called China Chinatown Chinese coffee Darleen daughter Ding divorce dream dress espresso ethnic eyes feel felt Fuck girl girlfriend hair hand Hank Hawai'i Jack London College Japanese Japantown Jimmy Julia kiss kitchen knew laughed legs living Loretta Young lover married memory Miss Chinatown USA mond mother moved Nancy Kwan never no-no boy nodded Norma phone number picked politically correct pulled pushed racist Raymond looked Raymond thought Raymond tried Raymond wanted remembered restaurant Shawn Wong shit silence sleep someone Sophia Loren sound spoke stared talk tell There's thing told took trying turned unitard waited walked watched wearing white guy white woman wondered Wood Yeah