{"id":38019,"date":"2015-07-30T10:38:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T14:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=38019"},"modified":"2015-07-30T10:49:21","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T14:49:21","slug":"diamond-head-cecily-wong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Diamond<\/a>If you’re tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha<\/em> casting controversy<\/a> earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice. Depicting Hawai’i as pretty much 99% white with the excuse that Hawaiian sovereignty activist Bumpy Kanahele<\/a> got to play himself didn’t satisfy the naysayers much. The film was probably a box-office dud (what else<\/em> might that $37 million budget have accomplished?!) for reasons other than just casting, but Stone recently did come out publicly to admit that “Her ‘Eyes Have Been Opened’ by Aloha<\/em> Controversy.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Hollywood aside, here’s a summer alternative on the page (or stuck in the ears \u2013 the mellifluous five-woman cast is a major bonus), which at least has the promise of authenticity. That cloyingly exoticized cover (blossoms? perfect\u00a0Gong Li\u00a0partial? how-to-make-an-asian-book-cover-101?<\/a>) might make you balk initially, but give the words a fighting chance.<\/p>\n

Like her characters, first-time novelist Cecily Wong<\/a> is Chinese Hawaiian, born on Oahu where most of her family still resides. In an article for Bustle.com<\/a>, Wong estimates that her book is “[e]ighty percent fiction, 20 percent family stories.” In terms of veracity, Wong explains she\u00a0“used real facts from real family history, but dropped them into a fictional plot.”<\/p>\n

As Diamond Head<\/em> opens, the mother, wife, and daughter of Bohai Leong are called together to remember and mourn: his untimely death and its aftermath serve as the frame to reveal three troubled generations of the Leong family. Transplanted from China to Hawai’i in the early 20th-century\u00a0by the late patriarch, shipping magnate Frank Leong, the family accumulated vast riches, but\u00a0contentment and happiness remained elusive\u00a0commodities.<\/p>\n

Frank saves Lin from abusive parents, but her luxurious life in Hawai’i is based on half-truths and lies. Her daughter-in-law Amy’s heart belonged always to another, in spite of Bohai’s wrenching devotion. The only Leong grandchild \u2013 Amy and Bohai’s daughter Theresa \u2013 is still a rebellious teenager, yet carries the latest Leong-to-be in her growing belly. Each generation is haunted by the promise \u2013 fulfilled and broken \u2013 of “an invisible red string … [which] connects destined lovers, despite time or place or circumstance. It can stretch and tangle, but never can it break.<\/em>” That said, it sure can screw things up.<\/p>\n

Interwoven with late 19th-century Chinese history, the colonization of the Hawaiian islands, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all the way through 1964, Wong’s expansive saga is definitely a page-turner; it’s also sprawling, messy, and not without the occasional raised eyebrow. Lin’s narrative after the midway ‘big-reveal’\u00a0could have been better flushed out, her sister-in-law Hong’s story dangles, Theresa’s spoiled petulance is overdone, and Bohai’s younger brother lacks depth in both page time and character.<\/p>\n

Regardless of possible literary faults, Amy Tan and Lisa See fans will surely welcome Wong into their fold, ready to add Diamond Head<\/em> to summer bookshelves. Groupies in search of less formulaic, fresher options might turn to Celeste Ng\u2019s Everything I Never Told You<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Ng blurbs Diamond<\/em>)\u00a0or Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer<\/em><\/a>. Indeed, that such authentic choices abound might be just the stories to which Hollywood needs to pay closer attention \u2013 eyes wide open and all, ahem!<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha casting controversy earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice. Depicting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,21,6,197,1794],"tags":[2284,84,6608,6478,75,6477,5940,10,11,68,1596,129,6479,39,6480,44],"class_list":["post-38019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-hapa","category-hawaiian","tag-angela-lin","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-cecily-wong","tag-death","tag-diamond-head","tag-emily-woo-zeller","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-janet-song","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-nancy-wu","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-samantha-chen","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"\nDiamond Head by Cecily Wong - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you’re tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha casting controversy earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice. Depicting...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-30T14:38:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-30T14:49:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/07\/Diamond-Head-by-Cecily-Wong-on-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"993\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong - BookDragon","og_description":"If you’re tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha casting controversy earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice. Depicting...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2015-07-30T14:38:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-07-30T14:49:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":993,"height":1500,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/07\/Diamond-Head-by-Cecily-Wong-on-BookDragon.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/","name":"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-07-30T14:38:32+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-30T14:49:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/diamond-head-cecily-wong\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Diamond Head by Cecily Wong"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38019"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38170,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38019\/revisions\/38170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}