The Rice Queen Diaries
by Daniel Gawthrop
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Book Summary Information
Author: Daniel GawthropEdition: Paperback
Published: 2005-09-01
ISBN: 155152189X
Number of pages: 225
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Book Reviews of The Rice Queen Diaries
Book Review: Disappointing lack of self-critique
Summary: 1 Stars
After reading the editorial and Amazon reviews, I had high hopes that this book would provide thoughtful insight from a unique perspective. His narrative reveals more about his partners than about himself and ultimately I found myself more interested in the people he came into contact with than in him. The closest he gets to "insight" is by providing commentary on other writings rather than commentary on his own assumptions, motivations and experiences. In fact, he uses the word "entitlement" for the first time on page 241, with only 10 pages left to the end of the book, and then retreats into the same strategy of emotional distancing by telling someone else's story and quoting someone else's text (an appropriation that itself can be considered colonialist). He spends more time presenting himself as the exception to the rice queen stereotype (thereby leaving the stereotype untouched), rather than considering how he may be perpetuating the stereotype himself.
I was glad to see that he didn't spend too much time on "white guilt", but would have loved to see a broader range of emotions- about himself- exhibited in the book. I would have loved to see him struggle more, either by redefining and reclaiming the Rice Queen label or by talking about the inner conflict of shame/pride/delight/frustration of falling in love outside your race. He also describes each of his individual relationships and encounters as if there were no common themes to how he entered into and broke them off. He also seems to differentiate the class/power difference between his (younger, poor)Asian and (sometimes older, sometimes more affluent) Asian-Canadian partners as if to dismantle or excuse himself from the Rice Queen stereotype.
In short, his analysis lacked personalization and evaluation. There was a striking difference between the First Person narrative and Third Person analysis, thereby putting a greater (and artificial) distance between himself and the stereotype. In those few passages where he does acknowledge his own "racist behavior", he does so in passing. This could have been a whole chapter unto itself. His narrative proved to be more a description of the Rice Queen phenomenon, and not an honest, reflective evaluation of the good, the bad and the ugly of his experience of the phenomenon.
My recommendations would be that he not depend on quotes from other writers to express his feelings (there is a certain entitlement that comes from this type of emotional distancing) and that he write an entire book based on the last paragraph of page 241, the one paragraph that contained personal narrative, personal analysis and personal evaluation.
Summary of The Rice Queen Diaries
In this moving autobiography, Daniel Gawthrop writes about the politics and pleasures of being a self-identified "rice queen": a gay man who is attracted to Asians. Navigating through the urban jungles of Western cities like Vancouver and London, as well as the humid streets of Bangkok and Hanoi, Daniel explores the multicultural minefields of sexuality and culture as he articulates the manners and contradictions of his desires.
The politics of race, and the unspoken rules of gay Asian culture in both Western and Eastern settings, underscore Daniel's personal journey, in which he recalls his teen years spent idolizing Bruce Lee and his fixation on an Asian schoolmate whose hazing becomes a sexual spectacle for him. As he enters adulthood, his desires become manifest as he explores the subcultures of Long Yang Clubs (where gay Asians and "their admirers" can meet) before departing for Asia, where his encounters become transactions, and he learns the hard way that sexual desire has a human and emotional cost.
Evoking the themes of Edward Said's Orientalism, The Rice Queen Diaries is as much a personal statement about culture and otherness as it is about gay desire. Traversing three continents, these diaries are a personal reckoning, a bold coming to terms with the nuances of sexuality that has relevance for all of us.
Daniel Gawthrop is a writer and labor activist and the author of three previous books, including Affirmation: The AIDS Odyssey of Dr. Peter (New Star) and Vanishing Halo: Saving the Boreal Forest (Greystone). He lives in Vancouver.
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