The Writer's Vision: Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings

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A Mere Memoir?
Cathy Park Hong’s narrative Minor Feelings is bold and formidable. She exposes Asian Americans’ “vague purgatorial status” that they are “distrusted by African Americans, ignored by whites, unless we're being used by whites to keep the black man down.” Asians, as Hong mentions, are considered a “model minority” who are characterized as “undemanding, diligent, and never asked for handouts from the government” and yet they are hated by Americans whenever their status changes. Despite the conspicuous radical emotions towards Asian Americans, the self-hatred that Asian Americans experience is always ignored and underestimated. “When there are only two Asians,” Hong writes, “one may try to take the other out so that the meager power meted out to minorities will not be shared”. Hong opens a Pandora’s box and sheds light on the minor feelings that Asian Americans are undergoing.
What are minor feelings? In “Stand Up”, Hong strikes a chord with Pryor that minor feelings are “the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic”. Minor feelings arose when Hong had a terrible treatment in Vietnamese pedicure and Hong attributed this bad experience to Asian self-hatred, “like two negative ions repelling each other.” These feelings are further complicated in the terrain of language where Hong asserts “Bad English is best shared offline, in a book or performed live”. In the friction of miscommunication, the minor feelings persist, evoking a sense of otherness even within one’s own voice.
Hong stands out through her incorporation of personal narrative. Hong does not share from sharing her personal experiences with the audience, no matter how embarrassing they can be. Hong indicates, “MY DEPRESSION BEGAN WITH AN imaginary tic” (“United”, 7). The opening unveils an approach of personal narrative that Hong follows in the rest of the book. Hong shows how, convinced that her old facial tic has returned, falls into depression. The visit to a Korean-American therapist makes it worse since the therapist refuses to treat her without giving reasons. The use of a personal narrative serves as an invitation for the reader to engage in self-exploration with her. The invitation demonstrates a communal aspect of the story, aligning with the broader societal theme of collective understanding. At the same time, the personal narrative approach underscores Hong's commitment to authenticity. Authenticity often involves vulnerability and transparency. Hong’s personal accounts are marked by a raw of openness, where she exposes her vulnerabilities, failures and triumphs. With the authenticity, readers are better positioned to understand the experience of Asian Americans which fosters empathy and breaks barriers to comprehension.
Another outstanding attribute of Hong's writing style is a confrontational approach. Hong does not shy away from using direct and unflinching language to engage the audience about the complexities of As...