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Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self Paperback – May 1, 2018

by Alex Tizon (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 217 ratings
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“A ruthlessly honest personal story and a devastating critique of contemporary American culture.” — Seattle Times

A “searingly honest self-exploration”* of the experience and psyche of the Asian American male, including Tizon’s stunning final article, “My Family’s Slave”
 
Shame, Alex Tizon tells us, is universal—his own happened to be about race. To counteract the steady diet of American television and movies that taught Tizon to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height, he turned outward. (“I had to educate myself on my own worth. It was a sloppy, piecemeal education, but I had to do it because no one else was going to do it for me.”) Tizon illuminates his youthful search for Asian men who had no place in his American history books or classrooms. And he tracks what he experienced as seismic change: the rise of powerful, dynamic Asian men like Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang, actor Ken Watanabe, and NBA starter Jeremy Lin.
            Included in this new edition of Big Little Man is Alex Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave”—2017’s best-read digital article. Published only weeks after Tizon’s death in 2017, it delivers a provocative, haunting, and ultimately redemptive coda.
 
* New York Times
 
“Alex Tizon writes with acumen and courage, and the result is a book at once illuminating and, yes, liberating.” — Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    May 1, 2018
  4. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.77 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1328460142
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1328460141
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Big Little Man Alex　Tizon fearlessly penetrates the core of not just what it means to be male and Asian in America, but what it means to be human anywhere."-Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild "Part candid memoir, part incisive cultural study, Big Little Man addresses - and explodes - the stereotypes of Asian manhood. Alex Tizon writes with acumen and courage, and the result is a book at once illuminating and, yes, liberating." -Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl "A well-paced, engaging combo of history, memoir, and social analysis. . . Tizon’s skill as a feature reporter serves the book well, producing a narrative that moves fluidly between subjects, settings, and gazes." -- Publishers Weekly “A deft, illuminating memoir and cultural history.” -- Kirkus Reviews "Written compellingly....eye-opening... deeply felt, extensively researched." -- Booklist "Tizon’s candid journey into the shifting and multiplying definitions of manliness and the masculine ideal is revelatory and sobering."-- Library Journal “Highly readable . . . This personal narrative of self-education and growth will engage any reader captivated by the sources of American, and Asian-American, manhood — its multitude of inheritances and prospects.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune “At once a ruthlessly honest personal story and a devastating critique of contemporary American culture . . . What makes [Tizon’s] writing compelling is his ability to investigate and explain complex topics, deftly weaving in information from websites, history texts, university research and social media, combined with intense self-examination. His willingness to look inward gives him more authority to unpack some of the damaging misperceptions about Asian men.”  -- Seattle Times   —

About the Author

ALEX TIZON, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, was former Seattle bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times and longtime staff writer for the Seattle Times. He coproduced a 60 Minutes segment on Third World mail-order brides in Asia, and taught at the University of Oregon. Big Little Man was the winner of the prestigious Work in Progress Prize from the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 1, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1328460142
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1328460141
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.77 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 217 ratings

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Alex Tizon

Alex Tizon

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
217 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

KZ
5.0 out of 5 stars Vulnerability is the Highest Form of Courage
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2020
Verified Purchase
Race, manhood, stereotype, history, origin, and self. All these concepts were blended together for Asian males in the Western world that cause daily self-doubts, pains, and hopelessness. Mr. Tizon explored the complexity of this blend in his own memoir. A painful read, because it feels so real, so close to my own experience.

I enjoyed the entire book. Simple, honest, and straightforward language for the most vulnerable part of Mr. Tizon's heart. If there is one thing that can be used to measure a male's manhood, I would say it is his courage. And such an exposure of one's vulnerability is the highest form of courage.

The book is also mind-opening. There are lots of pages about how the western world, from ordinary people to media, carry a biased views of Asian males. I shared the same experience personally. Reading the book, I also think it is useless to ask Hollywood gods to present Asian males properly in their productions. That is not their jobs. Their jobs, their only jobs, are to make money by pleasing the majority of the market. We Asian males shall not rely on others to tell our stories or to present us properly. We shall by our own story-teller, in our daily life, in our career, in the form of arts, engineering, managements, fatherhood, spousehood, ... It is complacency to think that improvement will come over time if we don't take control of our stories. It is human nature to say bad things about our competitors, the other tribes.

I wish I had read his book when Mr. Tizon was still with us. Highly recommend this book.
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LakersLinsanity
5.0 out of 5 stars Quite an Inspiration. Allow Asian men to Find Our Voices.
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014
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Great book especially when it pertains to Asian/Asian-Americans masculinity. I'm a Vietnamese-American male living near Los Angeles. I'm writing to say that I'm thankful for this book--Big Little Man. It is currently 4:30 a.m. in the morning and I can't keep this book down. This book speaks volume to me and I'm sure it is doing the same to so many Asian-American males in this country. I believe we need more works like these. They allow us to have our voices heard. I would like to contribute in whatever capacity I can to have more voices like these heard.

I think as more Asian males read more materials not just from Mr. Tizon but from various sources, that they then feel they share a common experience--moving forward could actually happen.

I had an idea of possibly establishing an Asian men's support group or a panel to stimulate discussions. I think it's a matter of having like-minded men to come together. So far it's just me who feel strongly about this in my area. I specifically remember in this book about an Asian male friend of the author whom he had met at a party. The three men then sat outside the party porch and the friend was very vocal with explicit language about why women are dating everyone else except Asian men. I could envision a group like that as a support group. Also, how the author befriend an Asian female who just would not date Asian men. She said to Mr. Tizon, "Would you date them?" Lines like that still sting me. But I think having both gender presence stimulate interesting discussions.

I'd attended some major conferences pertaining to Asian/Asian-American (A/AA) leadership, empowerment, and team building. I saw concepts from Jane Huyn's book "The Bamboo Ceiling" used at these conferences. I hope ideas and experiences from this book will be used as well. At least then, we know it's no longer just an individual and isolated experience.

I have to admit, there were times tears swell up due to the hurt I feel, but also a sense of hopelessness--a sense of how far we Asian men have to go to date in this country. If it starts out with just one, then no problem. But as more and more women turn down my advances, I always revert back to some of the issues Mr. Tizon had mentioned in this book but try not to internalize them. That's a losing battle if that happens.

Finally, I'm still hopeful & continue to read and open blogs, articles, and books like these knowing that there are people who care & want to make that ripple change no matter how dire the circumstances.

For that, I'm grateful that Mr. Tizon have exposed fully his life and his journey on public display. His experiences are so raw and powerful. I'm grateful and hopeful that these ripple effects are what allow others to have their own voices and develop trust in their own journeys.

I'm looking forward to more writings from Mr. Tizon. Again, thank you so much. This book just means so much to me. For the upcoming year, I'm am forever grateful.
15 people found this helpful
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A Kim
4.0 out of 5 stars Personal experiences that can apply to just about anyone (not just Asians)
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2014
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Just got done reading this over two days, and as a reader who can closely relate to the topics discussed (i.e. a twenty something asian guy) I was overall pleased with the work that Mr. Tizon has done here. His book touches base on a lot of topics that I suspect many Asian guys including myself have dwelled on, whether from time to time after a perceived slight or obsessively with self-defeat. I believe he did a good job telling his story of trying to fit in while interweaving a larger historical context of the interaction between East and West that has largely demeaned people of yellow skin. I also respected his measured approach and evenhandedness in not connecting the dots just to fit a dogmatic doctrine, as I feel is too often the case in some humanities. While some issues seemed to be painted with a broad brush, there was restraint and acknowledgement of gray areas that a lesser writer might not have shown. Alex presents plenty of cases of clear-cut racism, such as his encounter with the Gun Boy in the Bronx, but there are others where things aren't so clear-cut, like his girlfriend in Alaska who reassures him that she doesn't care about the size of his penis before pulling his pants down. He subsequently mulls over whether she just said that because he is Asian, but is self-aware enough to acknowledge the possibility that the problem is his brooding and pathos. A lot of hardship has come his way because people have put him in a box for his race, but Alex Tizon is mindful enough to realize that his pathos has amplified his pain in many ways, blinding him to a lot of positive things and people that have come his way. As a kind of neurotic, introspective guy that tends to overthink situations, I can definitely relate to that uneasiness and uncertainty when I wonder if a slight is real, or just in my head.

The book was highly readable, and I think the author underplays his capabilities as a writer when assessing his own talents. Some recollections of events from his past occasionally seemed to have a bit too dramatic of a flair in describing a scene, in the style of some immersion journalism articles you might find in Rolling Stone. But otherwise, Alex gets straight to the point and offers a great glimpse into his thoughtful mind without any pretense. The parts of the book that dragged a bit for me were on topics that I've heard plenty of times before, but that's owing more to my over-familiarity with said topics (lack of Asian males on screen, the perception of them as sexless, etc). The most interesting aspects of the book were looking at Asian figures and interactions with the West further back in history, such as the explorer Zheng He who preceded Columbus by some decades, and theories on the perpetuation of the view of Asians as servile with the wave of Chinese immigrants to the American Wild West. Tizon's recollection of the coverage of the My Lai massacre and the relative indifference to the Killing Fields of Cambodia in American classrooms are examples from more recent history were impactful. Another excerpt that stood out for me was his recollection of a new female Asian coworker at a newsroom where he once worked, who was at first doted over, but was quickly turned on when she showed her competence, independence and ambition. Overall a very eclectic array of experiences and events that meld in what I at least thought was a pretty cohesive package.

As an Asian American man who is about a couple generations removed from when Alex Tizon first came to America, his experiences written on paper elicited a sense of familiarity, while also confirming my belief that I have been relatively fortunate compared to those who came before me. Time has brought positive change, and while there's a long way to go, the trend points to better things. I felt sad at the pathos that still seems to have a grip on Mr. Tizon, although it is one that has loosened and changed as his views on manliness, duty, and life have changed. And as he theorized about the young, confident (at least on the surface) young Asian men that he has met on his Oregon University campus, my relatively sunnier disposition is likely a result of growing up in a more accepting time, with more examples of Asians in high profile positions that are taking steam out of persistent stereotypes.

I know this review has dragged on, but there were many feelings I felt I needed to put on page about this book. And while the subject matter may on the surface may only pertain to Asian males (and females), it's really about larger issues of self-worth and inner confidence, about finding a place in a world that may put their own, often demeaning and limited expectations on you. Really, anyone can get some perspective and some enlightenment from this half biography, half history lesson.
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Top reviews from other countries

Str
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening
Reviewed in Italy on June 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
As a second generation Filipino in Italy i have gone through and felt most of the things my bro in arms Alex have written.
I might be younger than him, but believe me in some part i saw my self in his biography.
Its a different contest and imo an harsher one cause racism and stereotypes are still a common things here.
He made me understand a lot of things and made cry with that Lola's story , i dont know if i will ever buy that book...
I like the part of the asian (especially chinese) Hierarchy.
FILIPINO WAKE UP! We need to stand and catch up!
Overall it made me stronger, opened my eyes and warmed my heart.
To all of you : AKNOWLEDGE WHO YOU ARE ,dont try to fit in something you dont belong and then you will be ready for great things.

RIP BROTHER ALEX TIZON AND THANK YOU
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A potential classic?
Reviewed in Canada on June 15, 2017
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Can't say enough about this book. The huge concluding metaphors and analogies on the current state of global society emerge from and allude to the preceding detail. If you only scan that detail, the ending risks losing its depth. The book could be a monumental sleeper that eventually comes to be recognized as a classic. The writing is so understated it seems almost mundane at first. But there comes a point as a sentence almost slips by, when you think, "Hey wait a minute... WTF did he just say!?!" That's when you go back and realize he's been doing it all along. Though utterly unrelated in type and content, as a social phenomenon, this book could come to have the kind of delayed social and academic impact that 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' did forty years ago.
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