A Midsummer Update

my next book gets a title + Chinatown nostalgia, a Bushwick film screening & assorted humblebrags

Popping in to say hello! For the last few months, I’ve been immersed in researching and writing my next book, hence the lack of activity here. I can happily report that I’m more than halfway through the first draft and cranking things up to meet a rapidly approaching fall deadline. Alongside this progress, comes another exciting announcement: My book now has a title!

OFF WHITE aims to tell the story of mixed race people in America. The phrase itself refers to the inbetweenness that is central to the mixed experience in a country defined by the black-white binary. For me, being “off white” means being racially ambiguous, hard to categorize, and often mistaken for white or seen as close to whiteness without identifying that way.

In Jeremy O. Harris’s Tony-nominated Slave Play, the character Dustin is described as “off-white.” During one scene in the play, another character confronts Dustin about his racial identity:

What are you

if you’re not white

because you never say . . .

you just

you get to exist in this ambiguity of “non-whiteness.”

. . .

Now I could call you

off white

dark white

eggshell!

But every time I still go back to white with you.

So what are you, if not white?

In a hierarchy that demands every person and thing be classified and put in their place, ambiguity exasperates. Off white encapsulates an idea that many Americans have to contend with, not just mixed race people—that one can simultaneously be too much and never enough.

To some, I look too white to be considered Asian. I’ll never be Chinese enough in word or deed to overcome their suspicion that I’m a phony. At the same time, I have been othered by people who see my mixedness as exotic or desirable. I am too Asian to escape notice if, let’s say, there was an ethnic purge to root out all nonwhites (an effort ICE has already begun). These are the contradictions I hope to tackle in the book. I also plan on bringing in stories from many other mixed race Americans as a counterweight to my own experiences. There’s no one way to be mixed.

I’m thrilled that OFF WHITE will be published by Tiny Reparations Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House founded by comedian and bestselling author Phoebe Robinson of 2 Dope Queens fame. I’m grateful to be working again with Executive Editor Emi Ikkanda, who skillfully edited Not Your China Doll, and my agent Alia Hanna Habib, who is mixed herself and understood what this book could be when it was just a kernel of an idea. So, whenever you haven’t heard from me in a while, you’ll know where my mind’s at.

In other news: It won’t surprise you to learn that I haven’t stopped carrying the torch for Anna May Wong. Next week on Thursday, July 23, I’m hosting a special double feature screening of Shanghai Express (1932) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), two of Wong’s best films from the 1930s, on the rooftop of Ornithology Jazz Club in Bushwick. If you’re a New York local, I’d love to see you there. Plus, tickets include the cover fee to any of the jazz performances downstairs. I’ll also have a few copies of Not Your China Doll on hand for purchase. More details and tickets available here.

In May, Not Your China Doll was shortlisted for the 2026 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing in Nonfiction. This is the second award the book has been nominated for (the first was the Goodreads Choice Award in History & Biography) and it came as a huge surprise to me. Awarded biennially by the Stanford University Libraries and William Saroyan Foundation, the prize is “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, vitality and stylistic innovation.” It’s a true honor to be considered among the 14 other nonfiction titles, which cover a diverse range of important topics. The winners and finalists will be announced in early fall.🤞

I am almost equally proud of the fact that NYCD continues to be included on Arcadia High School’s AP summer reading list (my alma mater) next to books like Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Anna May Wong has also been in the headlines again. You may have seen a recent Deadline article announcing a new Wong biopic to be produced by Fundamental Films with Chinese actress Xin Zhilei starring. Many people have questioned the production’s intentions in casting a Chinese actress rather than a Chinese American or Asian American actress to play Wong. The company also stated the film would be produced in English and Mandarin languages, another cultural inconsistency since Wong grew up speaking Cantonese and did not learn Mandarin until her 1936 trip to China. In an apparent clapback, Working Title has disclosed that their AMW biopic project, which was first announced in 2022 with Gemma Chan attached to star and David Henry Hwang as screenwriter, now has a final script. I’m not involved in either project but I’m interested to see how things shake out. I hope this means we’ll see Wong back on the big screen sooner rather than later!

Katarina Zhu in Bunnylovr (2025), courtesy Bunnylovr LLC

One more thing before I go. I’ve been feeling nostalgic about Chinatown lately. It was the neighborhood where I had my first post-college apartment when I moved to New York City 18 years ago. I lived there primarily because it was affordable and my roommate was a college friend, but it had the added bonus of bringing me into contact with my heritage in a way I had never experienced before. After watching Katarina Zhu’s poignant film Bunnylovr, I found myself reflecting on my early twenties in Chinatown. So I wrote about the film and my memories for The Brooklyn Rail, which you can read online in the July/August issue. I also interviewed Zhu about her process as a filmmaker and actor for The Amp.

As always, thanks for reading!