''American Knees'' is a novel written by Shawn Wong, first published in 1995 by Simon & Schuster, and currently published by the University of Washington Press (2005). Conceived as a cultural response to Amy Tan's novel '' The Joy Luck Club'', Wong's book depicts the love life of an

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

man with three complex women. The book chronicles with humor the romantic chapters in the life of Raymond Ding, a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

university administrator who first marries and divorces the perfect Chinese American wife, dates and breaks up with a '' hapa'' (biracial) younger woman, and gets involved with a Vietnamese American co-worker haunted by memories of the war.

About the author

Shawn Wong is the author of the award-winning novel '' Homebase'' and an editor of several anthologies of Asian American literature, including ''

Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers ''Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers'' is a 1974 anthology by Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong, members of the Combined Asian American Resources Project (CARP). It helped establish Asian American Li ...

'' and '' The Big Aiiieeeee!''. He is an English Professor and the former director of the University Honors Program at the University of Washington. Shawn Wong in San Francisco, 1976

Movie version

A film adaptation, entitled ''

Americanese ''Americanese'' is a 2006 American romantic drama film directed by Eric Byler and starring Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Kelly Hu, Ben Shenkman, Autumn Reeser, and Joan Chen. It is based on the novel ''American Knees'' by Shawn Wong, concerning the ...

'' (2006), was written and directed by

Eric Byler Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. Personal life Byler identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. He grew up in Virginia, Hawa ...

, produced by

Lisa Onodera Lisa Onodera is an American independent film producer, of such noted films as '' Picture Bride'', '' The Debut'' and '' Americanese''. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended UCLA where she received a degree from the School of Motion P ...

, and stars Chris Tashima as Raymond Ding, Allison Sie as Aurora Crane and Joan Chen as Betty Nguyen. The film was acquired by IFC Films.

External links

''American Knees'' from University of Washington Pressreview by Monica Chiu on MELUSShawn Wong on film adaptation on IMDiversity.com
in '' Northwest Asian Weekly'' 1995 American novels American novels adapted into films Chinese-American novels Novels set in Los Angeles Novels set in San Francisco {{AsianAmerican-stub