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2000
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Gay Asian poet brings a new perspective to the fore
by Anthony Glassman
Performance poet Justin Chin brings a mostly-unheard perspective to his poems and essays: that of a gay Asian man.
His collection of essays, Mongrel, available from St. Martin's Press, provides a funny, sometimes bitter look at the world around us. Bite Hard, a volume of Chin's poetry out on Manic D Press, went into a second printing just months after being released.
Originally from Malaysia, Chin now lives in San Francisco. This writer spoke with him as he prepared for readings in Cleveland and Columbus this weekend.
Anthony Glassman: Your poetry is very angry at times. Where do you think this anger stems from?
Justin Chin: Really? It's angry? I really don't think it's angry at all. Maybe maudlin. I would say it's kind of funny myself. But that's just me. How is it angry?
Do you find yourself emphasizing the Asian or the gay part of your identity more in your life than the other, or do you try to balance the two, or do you really wish reporters would stop disassembling you and come up with some new questions?
In my life or in my writing? In either case, it's neither. It's not like I get up in the morning and try to figure out what a gay person would eat for breakfast or an Asian would eat for breakfast or a gay Asian would eat for breakfast. It's not like identities are that easily separated or fragmented and used or applied in such a way. And besides, I usually get up at about noon, so breakfast is moot anyhow.
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You were born in Malaysia and moved to Singapore. When did you move to Singapore? When did you move to the U.S.? Why did you come here?
I pretty much grew up between the two countries all my life until I came to the U.S. Went to Singapore to go to school because the education system there was better. Flunked my A-levels royally, and came to the U.S. to go to college.
How do you feel about the state of gay rights in this country?
What gay rights? Sodomy laws are still on the books in several states. There is still so much discrimination, bigotry and hate crimes that go unquestioned or unpunished.
Just because it's more open and there's a seeming sense of acceptance in some quarters tends to make people believe that there have been great strides in gay rights, but have there really been? The very simple notion of adding "sexual orientation" to anti-discrimination laws is still enough to send so many people into conniptions.
Sometimes, too, I think we confuse the notion of rights, that very basic human notion of freedom and liberty, and equate it with consumerism and celebrity.
What, in your opinion, is the biggest problem in the gay community right now?
Probably the same problems that America, as a whole, has. For a nation that has the tenets of freedom and democracy written into the constitution, so many people are so willing to give up huge chunks of that freedom and civil liberties just for a quick fix, a feel-good. That so much of America is very reactionary. That there is no sense of context or connections made between issues and
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Justin Chin
ideas and social movements and history and politics. And that there is a general dumbing down all around.
Okay, I'm starting to ramble... How do you feel about the debate on gay marriage?
Gay marriage? I'd settle for a good date. I would rather have rights and benefits than the marriage itself. Countries like Britain, Holland, Australia and the like allow gay partners immigration rights, shared medical benefits, common-law marriage rights, and that sort of thing, all without the act of legal marriage itself.
Sure, the act in itself is nice. I was at my brother's wedding and it made me want to have a wedding too. Not get married, but just have a wedding. Sometimes, I think, in the U.S., we're more concerned with the show, the spectacle, the dressing than with the real grit.
I understand how some people feel very
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passionately and strongly about it, but I just can't seem to get all too excited about it. Though it is interesting that the Right uses gay marriage, and the idea of it or whatever it might end up being, as a weapon to further their ideologies and inflame that conservative rhetoric, while at the same time, divorce rates in the U.S. are at an all-time high.
Do you know how cute it is when you use Britishisms like lorry and crisps in your writing?
Wait until you try to copy edit the darn things.
Justin Chin will be reading and signing copies of his books at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 8501 Carnegie Ave., on Saturday, May 6 at 7 pm. The cost is $5 for the public, while members get in free.
The next day, at 3 pm, he will be at An Open Book at 761 N. High Street in Columbus for a free reading and signing.
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