Date: November 20th, 2023
Background:
I met Jiang for the first time in a book presentation of Chinos PR by José Lee Borges. She started off the presentation by sharing some of her work, and I remember being captivated by her words. After the presentation ended I immediately purchased her book (got the last copy, woohoo!) and got it signed by her. Now I get to share it with you all today!
Author Bio: Jaqueline Jiang is a Ph.D. student at the University of Puerto Rico; a teacher, writer, poet, and just a cool person.
Review:
A soul-rippling poetry book with themes of identity, family, and colonialism brings us a multi-regional perspective on the life of a Puerto Rican of Chinese descent. I found Jiang's writing to be fluid, and impactful, full of history, politics, family dynamics, and identity. Water Ripples is a wonderful collection of heart-to-heart poems that flow through the pages.
The book has a variety of poems that discuss different aspects of the author's life. The complexities of family dynamics and generational trauma and cycle breaking. A couple of poems focused on natural disasters in the Caribbean and the collective trauma we faced during Hurricane Maria in 2017. Jiang shares her own experience to highlight the corruption on our island and the unfairness of living (surviving) as a colonized people.
The author focuses on her experience of how others perceive her versus how she feels and identifies. Narrating her complicated experiences with other Puerto Ricans and Chinese people on and out of the archipelago. The book's central theme is that of searching for a place to belong and to be understood. In each stanza, we learn more about the author's struggles with being "othered" and how she sees herself. 🌊The Chinese mythology in some poems and the short story (an addition) was intriguing and my favorite parts of the book. The use of myths added a fantastical element to the text that transcended its meanings.
I welcome you to read this trilingual poetry book, as it encapsulates the experience of being a minority, of being mixed, matrilineal families, and the struggle of living under colonialism
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