Prior to Crazy Rich Asians, I actually had never heard of Jimmy O. Yang, but after watching and loving that movie, I started reading up on everything I could find related to the filming of the adaptation. In doing so, I found out that Jimmy is actually from Hong Kong like me, which of course piqued my interest – then after watching his comedy specials where he talks about his struggles with identity and belonging in his journey immigrating from Hong Kong to the United States and how he overcome the odds to become a successful Chinese-American entertainer in Hollywood, I eventually became a fan.
Aside from some of the biographical details that we both have in common (born in Hong Kong and immigrated with family to Los Angeles as a child, parents from Shanghai, fluent in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Shanghainese, etc.), there was so much of Jimmy’s immigrant experience overall that resonated deeply with me – specifically, his struggle with identity and belonging and thinking that he had to do everything he could to assimilate and fit in, yet at the end of the day, it still wasn’t enough in that he would still feel that he was constantly “caught between two cultures and their polarizing beliefs.” As an immigrant myself, this struggle to reconcile two disparate cultures is one that I understand profoundly, which is perhaps why I’m so drawn to Jimmy’s brand of comedy. Both of his previous comedy specials (entitled “Good Deal” and “Guess How Much”) center on his experiences as an Asian immigrant in America, though a large part also focuses on his interactions with his very Chinese-minded parents, which I definitely could relate to (the subtitle of his book is “An Immigrant’s Guide to Disappointing Your Parents” which I found both hilarious and very fitting). Speaking of his parents, I absolutely love the dynamic of the O. Yang family – Jimmy actually takes his dad (whom I’m obligated to call Uncle Richard – if you’re wondering why, reference the “Top 5 Chinese rules” in Jimmy’s book) and sometimes his mom (Auntie Amy) on tour with him and seeing their various interactions is so hilarious, especially during those instances when Jimmy pretends to be resentful over the fact that nowadays, Uncle Richard is more popular than him and he mock complains about audiences clamoring to get their picture taken with his dad rather than with him, lol.
I’ve actually known about Jimmy’s book for a couple of years and bought a physical copy when it first came out, but unfortunately never got around to reading it. Turns out this was a blessing in disguise, as Jimmy’s book is actually best experienced in audiobook format -- not only does Jimmy read the book himself, he also does a lot of improvising and ad libs some interesting tidbits in the audio version that are not in the print version (for example - he’ll give some side commentary on something he wrote or more hilariously, he’ll say something like “omg, I can’t believe I actually wrote that!”). As those who have seen his stand up can probably attest to, Jimmy is very lively and animated when it comes to his comedy routines and he brings the same delightful energy to his audiobook performance – his “Jimmy ah!” imitation of his mom and dad is so on point that I can’t help cracking a smile each time I hear it.
My absolute favorite section of the book was chapter 2 (titled “How to Immigrant”) where Jimmy talks at length about his culture shock when he first arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong as a young, impressionable 13-year-old. This chapter made me laugh so much that I had to take a break before going onto the next chapter so I could recover. I cracked up so hard at his bit about Pizza Hut (which, for those who may not be aware, is actually a fancy sit-down restaurant “with a swanky salad bar” in Hong Kong as opposed to the standing-room only “kitchen for pizza delivery” hole in the wall that it is here in the U.S.) and the incredulity in his voice when he wondered how “the authentic version [of Pizza Hut] could be so much sh***ier than the foreign version” (actually, the same can be said for many of the American fast food chains in Hong Kong – they are all VERY different from how they are here). Also, the bit about having his first American meal at his grandpa’s “favorite restaurant in LA” that served “authentic Mexican food” was downright hilarious – the “restaurant” happened to be El Pollo Loco, but for 13-year-old “fresh off the boat” Jimmy, it was unlike any place he had eaten at before. The way he described it was essentially like paradise – not only could he get as many soda refills as he wanted, there was also the “magical kingdom of flavor and color” that was the restaurant’s salsa bar – the fact that both the soda refills and the salsa were free and they could help themselves to as much as they liked completely blew little Jimmy’s mind. This was the beauty of listening to Jimmy narrate his own book – it felt like having an old friend sit you down in real life and listening to them tell you about their experiences.
Listening to this audiobook was such a fun experience! I definitely recommend that anyone interested in reading this book go for the audio version due to the enhanced reading experience. Even though a lot of what Jimmy writes about in his book will probably be familiar to those who’ve watched his comedy specials or followed his career, that’s okay because his lively, spirited narration makes it all come across fresh and engaging.
As a side note – Jimmy kicked off the Asian leg of his current “Big and Tall” standup tour in our mutual home city of Hong Kong over the summer (all 5 shows at the iconic Hong Kong Coliseum sold out in minutes!) and even though I didn’t get a chance to watch his performance live (bummer), I did follow all of the news stories and watched all the interviews he did with the local press over there, which was a fun experience in and of itself, but it also turned out to be a great lead-up to reading this book, so I would recommend that route as well.
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