Julia Lee Livres

This passionate memoir explores the Asian American experience within a racially stratified nation. At fifteen, Julia Lee witnessed her hometown engulfed in flames during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. As the daughter of Korean immigrant store owners in a predominantly Black neighborhood, she was raised to appreciate her privileges. However, the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, following the murder of Latasha Harlins by a Korean shopkeeper, prompted Julia to confront her racial identity and complicity. Caught between Black and white, she grappled with her sense of self for years, especially as she transitioned from a tumultuous childhood to the elite circles of academia. It was during her PhD in English that she found clarity—not through the classic authors she initially admired, but through the works of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Their writings provided her with the language and permission to critically assess her complex position as an Asian American, igniting a journey of racial reckoning and self-discovery. With a blend of scathing and heart-wrenching prose, Julia Lee reveals the disorientation and shame stemming from the nation’s racial hierarchy, advocating for Asian Americans to harness their unique experiences for meaningful social change alongside Black and brown communities.

Revealing the train's legacy as a critical site of race in the United States, this work examines its enduring symbolism of American exceptionalism and ingenuity. For nearly two centuries, the train has represented national identity, manifest destiny, and imperial ambitions, remaining a prominent figure in literature, film, and music. The narrative highlights the train's central role in shaping racial identity and difference, as Julia H. Lee argues that it serves as a setting for stories of race due to its multifaceted experiences and meanings. The train functions as both an invocation and a repository for various social, historical, and political narratives. Lee explores the legacies of racialized labor and disenfranchisement, from the contributions of Chinese Americans in constructing the Transcontinental Railroad to the portrayals of Native Americans in advertising, as well as the underground railroad and Jim Crow segregation. The train emerges as a significant space through which American cultural works engage with racial subjectivity, community, and conflict. By examining the train through diverse lenses, the work tracks how racial formations and conflicts are shaped in complex and often contradictory ways by the environments in which they unfold.

Newly-orphaned Clemency is entirely alone, until she's taken in by the Marvels. But where are her family? Why is she set to work as a scullery maid in the very house she travelled from India to live in? And in the face of grave danger, how are some marvellous but not-quite-genuine Red-Indians going to save her? Or can she save herself first?