PDF Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl

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Docile
Memoirs
of
a
Not-So-Perfect
Asian
Girl
Description
For readers of Crying in H Mart and Minor
Feelings as well as
lovers
of the film Minari comes a searing coming-of-age
memoir about the daughter of ambitious Asian
American immigrants and her search for
self-worth.A daughter of Korean immigrants,
Hyeseung Song spends her earliest years in the
cane fields of Texas where her loyalties are
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divided between a restless father in search of
Big Money, and a beautiful yet domineering mother
whose resentments about her own life compromises
her relationship with her daughter. With
her parents at constant odds, Song learns more
words in Korean for hatred than for love. When
the family8217sfake Gucci business lands them
in bankruptcy, Song moves to a new elementary
school. On her first day, a girl asks the
teacher 8220Cashe speak English?8221Neither
rich nor white, Song does what is necessary to be
visible she internalizes the model minority myth
as well as her beloved mother8217sdreams to see
her on a secure path. Song meets these
expectations by attending the best Ivy League
universities in the country. But when she wavers,
in search of an artistic life on her own terms,
her mother warns, 8220Hapiness is what
unexceptional people tell themselves when they
don8217thave the talent and drive to go after
real success.8221Years of self-erasure take a
toll and Song experiences recurring episodes of
depression and mania. A thought repeats I want
to die. I want to die. Song enters a psychiatric
hospital where she meets patients with similar
struggles. So begins her sweeping journey to heal
herself by losing everything. Unflinching and
lyrical, Docile is one woman8217sstory of
subverting the model minority myth, contending
with mental illness, and finding her self-worth
by looking within.