Author Talk: Lillian Li — Bad Asians - with Angie Kim

Author Lillian Li discusses their book "Bad Asians" at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

From the acclaimed author of Number One Chinese Restaurant comes an affecting novel about an unforgettable group of friends trying to make their way in the world without losing themselves, or one another.

Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian were always told that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got A's, and attended a good university—only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Now, despite their newly minted degrees, they’re unemployed and stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace—once the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropout—asks to make a documentary about the crew, they agree. It’s not like her little movie will ever see the light of day.

But then the video, Bad Asians, goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, millions of people know them as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control further derails their plans for the lives they’d always imagined, the friends must face harsh truths about themselves and coming of age in the new millennium.

Lillian Li’s novel wryly captures a generation shaped by the rise of the internet and the end of the American dream. An epic tale of friendship and family, Bad Asians asks, Can the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who you’re meant to be?

Lillian Li is the author of Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Granta, and Travel + Leisure. She is from the DC metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Li is in conversation with Angie Kim, who moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family.

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