The Chinese Academy for Brilliant Spawns and Other Stories

This book is a linked collection of original short stories that follow a group of people who, in the late-nineties, spent their adolescent Sundays together at a Chinese School in Portland, Oregon. The stories reach as far back in time as the Nanjing Massacre, and, at times, extend into the near future. Each piece tells the story of a different individual, focusing on one or multiple aspects of family, friendship, obligation, love, and desire. As a whole, the collection explores ethnicity and sexuality. It attempts to investigate the experiences of young Asian Americans in modern society, and to question what it means to be a family.