Thursday, May 12 07pm
Museum of Chinese in America
215 Centre St, New York, New York 10013
“It’s no secret that Hua Hsu is one of the finest cultural critics writing today. Now, in the barely-remembered Chinese-American H. T. Tsiang, Hsu has found a fascinating, unruly figure worthy of his own prodigious gifts” -Ed Park, author of Personal Days
Join scholar and New Yorker contributor Hua Hsu as he reads from his first book, A Floating Chinaman. It’s an imaginative history of America’s sudden fascination with China in the 1930s, told through a playful tapestry of voices: best-selling authors and publishing house power brokers, oil company bosses and their trusty Chinese translators, snooping F.B.I. agents and wide-eyed exchange students. Floating in the margins: H.T. Tsiang, a Chinese immigrant writer frustrated with American scene, slowly growing into his wise-ass ways, self-publishing his “American odysseys” and selling them in the streets of New York City. Discussion to follow reading.
Hua Hsu teaches at Vassar College and is a contributor to the New Yorker. He is currently a Fellow at the New America Foundation and a board member at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. A Floating Chinaman is his first book.
For tickets and information visit: http://www.mocanyc.org