{"id":7569,"date":"1997-03-02T19:43:51","date_gmt":"1997-03-02T23:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=7569"},"modified":"2015-08-17T10:34:14","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:34:14","slug":"typical-american-by-gish-jen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/typical-american-by-gish-jen\/","title":{"rendered":"Typical American by Gish Jen [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/1997\/03\/Typical-American.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-31274\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/1997\/03\/Typical-American.jpg\" alt=\"Typical American\" width=\"313\" height=\"475\" \/><\/a>Yifeng Chang arrives in the U.S., is renamed \u201cRalph\u201d by an impatient official, and pursues an engineering degree. He is reunited with his older sister, Theresa, marries Helen, and moves to suburbia in search of the American Dream where he discovers fried chicken fast food joints, glamour magazines, and con artists.<\/p>\n<p>The title comes from the phrase, &#8220;typical American,&#8221; which the Changs use in moments of exasperation and disgust at how they initially view Americans \u2013\u00a0wasteful, lazy, rude, etc. But eventually what begins as an insult quickly turns into a lifestyle goal of wanting to become &#8220;typical Americans&#8221; with a suburban house, wall-to-wall carpeting, two-car garage, magazine subscriptions, and take-out fried chicken for dinner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/bookdragonreviews.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/09\/what-do-i-read-next.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">&#8220;Asian American Titles,&#8221; <em>What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature<\/em>, Gale Research, 1997<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 1991<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7048\" title=\"Typical American\" src=\"http:\/\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/files\/2009\/09\/typical-american.jpg\" alt=\"Typical American\" width=\"126\" height=\"187\" \/>Yifeng Chang arrives in the U.S., is renamed \u201cRalph\u201d by an impatient official, and pursues an engineering degree. He is reunited with his older sister, Theresa, marries Helen, and moves to suburbia in search of the American Dream where he discovers fried chicken fast food joints, glamour magazines, and con artists.<\/p>\n<p>The title comes from the phrase, &#8220;typical American,&#8221; which the Changs use in moments of exasperation and disgust at how they initially view Americans \u2013 wasteful, lazy, rude, etc. But eventually what begins as an insult quickly turns into a lifestyle goal of wanting to become &#8220;typical Americans&#8221; with a suburban house, wall-to-wall carpeting, two-car garage, magazine subscriptions, and take-out fried chicken for dinner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/bookdragonreviews.wordpress.com\/files\/2009\/09\/what-do-i-read-next.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Asian American Titles,&#8221; <em>What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature<\/em>, Gale Research, 1997<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 1991<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,21,6,6535],"tags":[6608,59,10,11,2114,51,25,13,39,5158,4867],"class_list":["post-7569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-repost","tag-bookdragon","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-gish-jen","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-typical-american","tag-what-do-i-read-next-multicultural-literature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Typical American by Gish Jen [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature] - 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\/typical-american-by-gish-jen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Typical American by Gish Jen [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yifeng Chang arrives in the U.S., is renamed \u201cRalph\u201d by an impatient official, and pursues an engineering degree. He is reunited with his older sister, Theresa, marries Helen, and moves to suburbia in search of the American Dream where he discovers fried chicken fast food joints, glamour magazines, and con artists.  The title comes from the phrase, &quot;typical American,&quot; which the Changs use in moments of exasperation and disgust at how they initially view Americans \u2013 wasteful, lazy, rude, etc. But eventually what begins as an insult quickly turns into a lifestyle goal of wanting to become &quot;typical Americans&quot; with a suburban house, wall-to-wall carpeting, two-car garage, magazine subscriptions, and take-out fried chicken for dinner.  Review: &quot;Asian American Titles,&quot; What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997  Readers: Adult  Published: 1991\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/typical-american-by-gish-jen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1997-03-02T23:43:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T14:34:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/1997\/03\/Typical-American.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"313\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"475\" \/>\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=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Typical American by Gish Jen [in What Do I Read Next? 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