#Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen

[d4isywhims]

get to know a blogger!

i was tagged by the lovely @sweetsimapples <3 thanks for the tag!

show your wallpaper:

duckies! :DD

last song you listened to: black beauty by lana del rey

currently reading: revenge of the mooncake vixen by marilyn chia!

last movie: the super mario movie lol

last show: i'm currently re-watching disenchantment (for the 100th time) so there's that lol i have this thing where i get so attached to a show to the point where i'll watch said show for a good couple of months lmao

craving: ahh omg korean fried chicken! i'm planning to get some delivered rn

what are you wearing right now: a shirt my aunt got me with 'alaska' written on it that she got in alaska lmaooo

how tall are you: 166cm!

piercings: three on my left ear and two on my right!

tattoos: none sadly :( BUT i’m planning on getting one very soon!!!

glasses/contacts: glasses hands down. i don't like things going into my eye 😭

last thing you ate: soy glazed chicken and rice!

favourite colour: i don't think i have a favourite colour because it keeps changing as i grow older lol but as of now, i'm really into blues and greens :)

current obsession: matcha. ikr?? i've never been a matcha girlie but my friend flew to my city a few weeks ago and every time we went out to eat, she's always ordering matcha and i guess it kinda stuck

any pets: yes!! i have three poodles!

favourite fictional character: i cannot think of one rn 😭 phil dunphy from modern family ig

last place you traveled: just to another state in my country :) internationally? lake como!

i'm tagging @bloomingkyras @moonriesims @angelgnome @loveryss @discoverjoana @maplewhims @bearculaa @mdmszee and whoever is seeing this rn! do it!!! nah jk you don't have to ;)

[covenawhite66]

NORTHERN LIGHT: POWER, LAND, AND THE MEMORY OF WATER BY KAZIM AL

Recounts the formative years he spent on Indigenous lands as the child of Indian immigrants, learning about the impact of his father’s work on a dam on both the people and the environment in Jenpeg. The story he tells — of beautiful people, a unique community, and settler colonial dynamics

WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, AND OTHER ASTONISHMENTS BY AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL

This book is part nature writing, part memoir, part cultural criticism…and every bit of it is rendered in thoughtful and striking prose.

CHILDREN OF THE LAND: A MEMOIR BY MARCELO HERNANDEZ CASTILLO

Castillo lets readers into his journey as an undocumented immigrant to the U.S. His experiences (and those of his family members) not only expose some of the realities at the core of immigration policies, but they also render in robust, living prose the impact of such policies on real people.

POET WARRIOR: A MEMOIR BY JOY HARJO

Memoir from about a decade ago, was about the poet’s journey into the world of art and language. Harjo recounts the personal traumas and triumphs that were formative to her development and aims as a poet.

JUST US: AN AMERICAN CONVERSATION BY CLAUDIA RANKINE

Just Us she tackles racism from a different angle. The title’s play on words (just us/justice) cuts right to the heart of the book: it’s about having the necessary conversations about race and racism (past and present) in the United States in service of being better as a nation.

REVENGE OF THE MOONCAKE VIXEN: A MANIFESTO IN 41 TALES BY MARILYN CHIN

It follows Chinese American twins Moonie and Mei Ling Wong on their larger-than-life misadventures from adolescence to adulthood. It’s episodic in nature (as you may have guessed from the subtitle), but reads as a novel.

[suenitos]

what's your favorite book? if you don't have one, what's the book you read most recently?

hiiii qnaogie ^_^ ummmm i will give you a few off the top of my head

-on a sunbeam by tillie walden is GOREGEOUSLY drawn i saw it in my highschool library and loved it. wonderfully queer as well

-i rlly enjoyed reading Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen by Marilyn Chin for one of my classes this sem. Open City by Teju Cole was an interesting read too

-Flowers for Algernon and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas live rent free in my head though those are short stories

-i still occasionally go back to Holes by Louis Sachar so I'd say maybe that one as an official "favorite" book? but not really

[sinetheta]

She/I -- the dreamer -- cannot act as a principal in her own dream. She, the narrator of the table, is an easy accomplice. She sits quietly on the sidelines at the dance, waiting to be invited. The watcher has a bitter place in the world. She has so much yearning in her heart, so little acumen. Her loneliness is unbearable. Her unrequited longing calcified into her ventricles. Her silence welling up in her throat, all she can do now is gasp or sing for blood. She must quench her thirst for revenge. She must sound the sirens. She must rage out for being the obedient one, for being the repressed singer, for being that perfect Chinese girlhood too timorous to break the mold.

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen by Marilyn Chin. 2009.

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen is the roaring debut of Chinese American author, Marilyn Chin. This coming of age tale tells the story of twin sisters, Moonie and Mei Ling Wong, known as the “double happiness” Chinese food delivery girls. While under the care of their dominant grandmother from Hong Kong, they deliver Americanized Chinese food from their family restaurant every day throughout southern California. While the rebellious, wild, and often raging Wong sisters boldly assert their sexuality and intellect, they are often caught in promiscuous advances and struggle with the influence and expectations of their Chinese heritage while chasing the American dream.

Often referencing Chinese myths and tales and delivered with Chin’s strong, bold prose mixed with satire, profanity and metaphorical lyric, her debut novel is a raw depiction of the generational relationships and the growing pains of Chinese American women. Chin’s Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen is a shocking, gritty and whimsical account of the Chinese immigrant experience in America.

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[willowstreetstories]

zuihitsu #12

*cow milkin’ early in the morning

*still dark out, tho the time reads 5:45 am. insomnia’s a bitch!

*good things: sugar, chocolate, a good man, silk, red apples

*in a cold sky brief glimpse of Orion

*revenge of the mooncake vixen’ still identity-less

-counting the minutes until time to go

*

-did Shikishi write of winter? did she think outside of courtly aesthetics #monotanka

*

-Things I Dislike:

my age wrinkles long silences rotten apples

*

-some ice in a crystal bowl mixed with Liana syrup's nice.

[forochel]

meme time!

tagged by @aprilshydoeden​ 

Rules: tag 9 people you want to know better or just because you feel like it. {we’re all busy people ... i’m literally only doing this now bc you tagged me at *just the right time* & i’ve finished everything on my task list for tonight ... i hope. fuck.}

Relationship status: /crickets chirp. look what i need in life right now is a jeeves, not a romantic partner. (shut up re: the wodehousian UST, okay, i know)

Favourite colour: burgundyish wine-red 

Last song I listened to: ... the way u are, by ...pre-split dbsk, because i like my kpop at least a decade old??? i guess???? (this is a lie i have listened to MOVE at least 20398023985 times) (also that MV ... jesus christ ... i’m torn between crying & laughing why did my teenaged self think this was the shit. why did any of us.)

Last movie I watched: u..hhh... still the batman lego movie i think. 

Top 3 tv shows: i’m basically a middle-aged auntie who only watches korean variety shows on youtube, and we’ll just ... leave it ... at that ...

Top 3 characters: merry brandybuck (lotr); susan sto helit (discworld); izumi curtis (fma)

What I’m currently reading: /hollow laughter. okay, no, i am -- in bits & pieces --reading for leisure this ... surrealist chinese-american bildungsroman that makes unapologetic use of hyperbole and densely layered allusions to chinese popular culture, classical literature, and folklore, dealing with issues of immigration & assimilation. it’s called revenge of the mooncake vixen: a manifesto in 41 tales. the tone is ... it bounces. the writing is clever and self-aware. the telling itself is a Wild Romp. i suspect the ‘tales’ may be slightly inaccessible if you’re not well up on your chinese cultural ... /handwave. everything. nevertheless -- it’s vivacious fun and if you do give it a go, just let the author’s wordsmithying carry you along on its bacchanalian wave. warning: not meant to be read literally. (which honestly ... is something that all the weak reviews on goodreads seem to fail to grasp)

[espressosandexams]

(5/23/2017) Only 9 more days of high school! I can't believe I'm graduating in less than two weeks! Only 2 papers and a test left... I'm reading this book for English class. It's a fascinating feminist novel written by an Asian author. Would highly recommend. It's called: Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen

[softchink]

i've been trying to get back into reading, especially asian-american/feminist literature & all the recommendations you listed on your about page look amazing! i took a peek at your goodreads too although there's so much to sift through and i was wondering if you had any absolute must-reads you could recommend? you have a wonderful taste from what ive seen!! thank you so much!

hey!! YES thats so exciting!!!

im gonna give you novel recommendations but lmk if u have other genres in mind! this is also a somewhat sino-focused list, lmk if that doesnt work for u :))

everything i never told you by celeste ng

revenge of the mooncake vixen by marilyn chin (ive never met anyone whos read this book but like THERE IS NOTHING OUT THERE LIKE IT LIKE…WHAT AN EXPERIENCE i think about the first chapter like literally every day, nothing more feminist than violent Revenge against white boys tbh)

shelter by jung yun (major tws for abuse, feel free to message me about it) another book with major tws for csa is edinburgh by alexander chee which is just a ridiculously accomplished book

salt fish girl by larissa lai (CHINESE LESBIANS in speculative fiction! super hard book to find though)

an association of small bombs by karan mahajan (THE WRITING IS UNBELIEVABLE! like i still dont believe it!!! he’s so talented i want to cry and what a book)

the god of small things by arundhati roy (a classic, very much part of the canon) 

if u like short stories, i loved in the country by mia alvar! i’ve also heard great things about monique truong and meena alexander. ofc, the classic go-to is maxine hong kingston, i recommend starting with the woman warrior or china men.  people never give her credit for being experimental but she IS.  also another great book that’s experimental is dictee by theresa cha. 

and if u like poetry, Look by solmaz sharif. and anything by bhanu kapil (but especially the vertical interrogation of strangers).  

feel free to message me for something specific!! or if u have qs about the content in any of these, or if u just wanna exchange thoughts on books w/ me :)

[dogeareddirectory]

She/I -- the dreamer -- cannot act as a principal in her own dream. She, the narrator of the tale, is an easy accomplice. She sits quietly on the sidelines at the dance, waiting to be invited. The watcher has a bitter place in the world. She has so much yearning in her heart, so little acumen. Her loneliness is unbearable. Her unrequited longing calcified into her ventricles. Her silence welling up in her throat, all she can do now is gasp or sing for blood. She must quench her thirst for revenge. She must sound the sirens. She must rage out for being the obedient one, for being the repressed singer, for being that perfect Chinese girlchild too timorous to break the mold.

(Marilyn Chin, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen)

[ghostly-desires]

Favorite books (for myself to return to)

What is not yours is not yours by Helen Oyeyemi

(my mom has a favorite saying: 是你的就是你的,不是你的就不是你的)

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen by Marilyn Chin 

(for the vengeance)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

(it’s so painful I read it once and I’ll never read it again)

saltfish girl by Larissa Lai

(lesbian. speculative fiction!!!! with DURIANS)

The Border of Paradise by Esme Weijun Wang

(one of the only books about taiwaneseness I’ve ever read + gothic)

The Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn

The Incarnations by Susan Barker

Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang

[capjuby]

Love Story || Marilyn Chin

L’aérogramme dit viens     les photos montrent la liesse Une nouvelle union heureuse      un commencement tout frais Il est si incroyable gras    elle est si nouveau monde mince

Les enveloppes sont rouges       l’écriture vermeil Il va avoir un bon boulot    en fer un bol pour le riz ne se brise pas Elle a choppé un mec princier    un taiseux    comme son père

Sœurette colore en rose des œufs    Tantine fait bouillir des jarrets au cidre Le grand patriarche est content      Un petit fils plein d’entrain Un paquet de joie     venu d’un tube à essai du paradis

Merci pour vos bénédictions       pour votre lychee porte-bonheur Une jeune infirmière fait attention à elle maintenant     dans un petit hospice près de la mer Il est seul à Silicon Hill         c’est là où il est heureux

Les emails arrivent en silence      Instagram     négligent Merci pour vos gardénias blancs     ils lui caresseront l’âme Les bateaux en papier-encens      pour elle pêcheront des poissons dans le prochain monde        

Of her own poetry, Chin explained in Contemporary Women Poets: “I believe that my work is daring, both technically and thematically…My work is steeped with the themes and travails of exile, loss and assimilation. What is the loss of country if it were not the loss of self?” Similar themes inform Chin’s 2009 novel, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, a satirical take on both the coming-of-age and immigrant assimilation novels. Billed as both a “novel” and “manifesto in 41 tales,” Marilyn Chin described her book in an interview with the Boston Globeas “an immigrant tale with surreal things zigzagging through it. Immigrant novels are traditionally straightforward, linear; there’s not much play with realism and naturalism. I’m trying to contest that.” The novel was critically praised for its exuberance and tart playfulness. A reviewer for Time Out Hong Kong noted thematic similarities between Chin and other novelists of the Asian American experience like Amy Tan, adding “but Chin’s refreshing irreverence makes her book happily hard to categorize. Ultimately, the ‘manifesto’ promised by its subtitle is found not in its narrative, but in its inventiveness and pluck.” ---- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marilyn-chin  // http://www.marilynchin.org/ 

[fuckdamn]

Chocolate, chocolate chip, cookie dough, birthday cake

chocolate: when was your first kiss?

oh god haha…. seventh grade. funny story actually. i was at the school dance with my then “boyfriend.” i’ve always been tall. like really tall. i was 13 but i was about 5′9 then, and he was about 5′2. during the first slow song, he leaned in (i.e. went on tiptoes) to kiss me. i didn’t know what the fuck was happening so i leaned away and laughed. then he got really upset and i realized what he was trying to do and i felt bad so i kissed him during the second slow song. it lasted half a second and our lips hardly touched lol

chocolate chip: what’s your most popular post?

on this blog? this selfie that i posted last year that a Popular Blogger reblogged so it got like 200+ notes

cookie dough: do you play any instruments?

not really, i took piano lessons when i was younger, and i play a little bit of guitar since my dad’s a really good guitarist and he tried to teach me

birthday cake: favorite books?

my favorite book Of All Time is still the outsiders by s.e. hinton, it’ll always have a special place in my heart. but when i was in the hospital i read revenge of the mooncake vixen by marilyn chin, it was really really good and it kind of got me through that experience, so yeah. also, learning to swear in america by katie kennedy is the first good ya novel i’ve read in like…. 500 years

thank u!! :)

[universitybookstore]

“She/I -- the dreamer -- cannot act as a principal in her own dream. She, the narrator of the table, is an easy accomplice. She sits quietly on the sidelines at the dance, waiting to be invited. The watcher has a bitter place in the world. She has so much yearning in her heart, so little acumen. Her loneliness is unbearable. Her unrequited longing calcified into her ventricles. Her silence welling up in her throat, all she can do now is gasp or sing for blood. She must quench her thirst for revenge. She must sound the sirens. She must rage out for being the obedient one, for being the repressed singer, for being that perfect Chinese girlhood too timorous to break the mold.” -- Marilyn Chin, from Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen.

[knowtheyexist]

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen

Marilyn Chin

ISBN 0393331458 

An uproarious debut that lays bare the complicated generational relationships of Chinese American women.  Raucous twin sisters Moonie and Mei Ling Wong are known as the “double happiness” Chinese food delivery girls. Each day they load up a “crappy donkey-van” and deliver Americanized (“bad”) Chinese food to homes throughout their southern California neighborhood. United in their desire to blossom into somebodies, the Wong girls fearlessly assert their intellect and sexuality, even as they come of age under the care of their dominating, cleaver-wielding grandmother from Hong Kong. They transform themselves from food delivery girls into accomplished women, but along the way they wrestle with the influence and continuity of their Chinese heritage. Marilyn Chin’s prose waxes and wanes between satire and metaphorical lyric, referencing classical Chinese tales and ghost stories that are at turns sensual, lurid, hilarious, shocking, and surreal. 

[umlart-blog]

Yenitza Hernandez, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, 2011

Book cover redesign

[literaryephemera]

She was arrested twice for vagrancy, hospitalized several times for hearing voices. She sometimes wrote a poem; she sometimes found a dress at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. A dress, a poem---such discoveries gave her temporary joy... But storyteller, you may ask, why introduce this paltry character to us, what is the purpose? Tousle-haired, dirty-faced, alone in this vast universe, rooting through garbage and overturning stones: her life is failure. She survives to remember.

-Marilyn Chin, from Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen