Jeff Chang spent years working on his book about Bruce Lee. He recently spoke with our colleague Peter Larsen about “Water Mirror Echo,” and here he answers the Book Pages Q&A about his reading life, audiobooks and getting his own work – his excellent history of hip-hop, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” – back on the shelves after it was removed along with hundreds of other books by the Department of Defense.
Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America,” and why Lee has remained such a powerful figure in our culture.
Three generations after his death, Bruce Lee remains an icon to anyone who has ever felt stepped on. I wanted to know why. So “Water Mirror Echo” is a dual biography that tells the story of the rise of Bruce Lee and the rise of Asian America, which happen at the same time. Bruce didn’t describe himself as a revolutionary like the activists who coined the term “Asian American” in the late 1960s did. But there is no doubt that through his kung fu films, he became a hero of the marginal – the laborer, the anti-imperialist rebel, the defender of the forgotten. I think the answer to how he got that way lies in his self-discovery as an American living in racially and economically segregated communities with underdogs of all races.
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Q. You describe him as “perhaps the most famous person in the world about whom so little is known.” Can you talk about that?
Bruce’s global stature is now comparable to Bob Marley or Muhammad Ali. But while we know about their lives, we know less about Bruce’s. I think it’s in part because, after his premature death, many storytellers focused on the mystical and the carnal, mystifying who he really was. For better and worse, they made him a legend, someone beyond our reach.
But I also think it’s because most Americans know so little about Asian and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Bruce was an anchor baby, a war child, a migrant, an underemployed worker scorned for his “non-American” accent. The experiences he drew upon to become everyone’s favorite underdog are those he had as a colonial subject in Hong Kong and as a minority in America. Perhaps these kinds of stories are less familiar to many Americans. But when we hear them, they make Bruce’s appeal even more universal. His struggles make him more human.
Q. Your book on the rise of hip-hop, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” is brilliant, and one we’ve recommended or given to other readers over the years. What’s something you can tell us about the writing of that book?
Thank you! Hip-hop is such a powerful story engine. It’s the sound of folks locked out of the mainstream telling their stories to the multitudes. Looking back, it’s easy to see that I’ve been attracted to certain kinds of protagonists – outsiders, often young folks, who survive countless tragedies and overcome great odds to transform the culture with their irresistible creativity. It’s quintessentially American to root for the underdog.
But on Pete Hegseth’s order earlier this year, the Young Adult edition of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” — which moves from the birth of hip-hop up to the role of artists in the Black Lives Matter movement — has been removed along with more than 500 other books from all school classrooms and libraries on U.S. military bases. We’re working with the ACLU to end this unconstitutional book ban. We didn’t fight this long to have our stories reburied.
Q. What are you reading now?
My reading stack includes Sara Kehaulani Goo’s “Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i,” a story that hits close to home; an amazing collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander poets called “We the Gathered Heat”; and I’m catching up on the works of the literary giant Garrett Hongo. I just did a Notes From The Edge podcast episode on artificial intelligence, and after devouring Karen Hao’s essential “Empire of AI,” I’m reading Vauhini Vara’s “Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age” and Analee Newitz’s “Automatic Noodle” for takes that are, in turn, soulful and delightful.
Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?
Yes, I’ve recorded two audiobooks myself. I actually want to recommend our “Water Mirror Echo” audiobook because the narrator, James Chen, and the mostly Asian American team led by director Robin Lai did something historic. They chose to pronounce the hundreds of Asian names and phrases as you would actually hear them spoken in our communities. They could have anglicized or Americanized them; that’s been the standard. But James and Robin did the research — we’re an impossibly diverse community! — to get it right. Listening to it, you’ll know that this audiobook truly sounds like us. With James’s incredible performance, I feel like they have set a new standard. We are all so proud of what they’ve done.
Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?
Mahalo nui to Beryl St. Sure, Kathleen Dudden Rowlands, and Charles Proctor, who sparked my imagination through books from my childhood through teenagehood. Greg Tate, Joan Morgan, and Mike Davis then became my models of engaged writing and criticism.
Q. Are you someone who must finish every book you start – or is it OK to put down the ones you don’t connect with?
I think it’s fine to give up on books you can’t connect with. For myself, I can’t take it personally if someone puts mine down, given I am a maximalist who writes 500+ page books. It’s my job to keep the pages turning, after all. I also regularly put down books that I am enjoying. Life can get in the way. It’s one of the greatest joys to pick them back up and surprise myself.
Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?
I am the type to bombard a reader with questions, enough to scare them off. I want to know where they were gripped, where their attention flagged, what they learned, what they thought I got wrong, if they disagreed with me, if I changed their mind. Discretion being the better part of valor, I will limit it to just one: Was your time well spent?