The Dim Sum of All Things

The Dim Sum of All Things is a novel written by Kim Wong Keltner, explores the many aspects of Asian American life and culture. Just my purest first impression of reading the summary on the back of the book it sounded like it would be a fun book to read. However, after diving into a fairly good portion of the book I found my opinion of the book to change quite a bit. I was very surprised to see so many references to Asian and Chinese stereotypes. I thought that after reading further into the book they would stop, but that was not the case at all. The story does nothing redeem itself after so many negative stereotypes.

The main character of the story is named Lindsey. She is one of those kinds of helpless characters you get annoyed at in stories, instead of going out and solving her problems she just sits there and mopes. She is also very distant with her own culture, so I find it odd that they way Lindsey talks is as if she is being representative of all Chinese,Asians, and women as well. A good portion of this book is about stereotypes, well guess what? the main character is very quick to place people into stereotypes as well. Lindsey will see a white male dressed a certain way and immediately he is labeled a "Horder". Looking at Lindsey's character we see many of the themes the book focuses on.

Culture is a constantly reoccurring theme in the book. I myself feel that this book does not truely explore all of the Chinese and Asian American culture because Lindsey is so disconnected from her culture. It is like being lectured about a culture by someone who is not even from that culture. Not to mention at times I feel Lindsey dislikes her culture, like she wishes she could have been born into something else.

Stereotypes are another common theme in the story. Lindsey talks about the many categories that people put her in. The funny thing though is that Lindsey herself is sometimes caught putting people into categories. So it is a bit hard to be cheering for for the main character because she does see that she is being simple minded. However, there are timse in the book that I did feel that I could relate to her. Such as when she talks about how people would call her things when she was little, but had no idea what they were saying until she was older. I went thorough something that practically identical.

Interracial dating is a very sensitive subject that can be found in the book. When you are reading the first few parts of the book it sounds like the book is really against interracial dating. Coming from an Asian family I have alwaysed noticed it, and was hoping that the book would give some good reasons as to why this is because it baffles me. I do not see why they are so against dating out of thier own gene pool. I know that times have changed for the better, but there still is some of the past still lingering around and I hope it will fade away eventually.

This book stirs up many feelings inside of me and questions as well. After getting me all interested with all the questions about Asian American culture, it annoys me that so much of the book was focused on stereotpyes. I am a little disapointed that it never really went into depth they questions that were posed on the back. I still would like to know that the facination with Hello Kitty is all about.