Preview
  • The Souls of Yellow Folk

  • Essays
  • By: Wesley Yang
  • Narrated by: David Shih
  • Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (42 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Souls of Yellow Folk

By: Wesley Yang
Narrated by: David Shih
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

One of the most acclaimed essayists of his generation, Wesley Yang writes about race and sex without the jargon, formulas, and polite lies that bore us all. His powerful debut, The Souls of Yellow Folk, does more than collect a decade's worth of cult-reputation essays - it corrals new American herds of pickup artists, school shooters, mandarin zombies, and immigrant strivers, and exposes them to scrutiny, empathy, and polemical force.

In his celebrated and prescient essay "The Face of Seung-Hui Cho", Yang explores the deranged logic of the Virginia Tech shooter. In his National Magazine Award-winning "Paper Tigers", he explores the intersection of Asian values and the American dream, and the inner torment of the child exposed to "tiger mother" parenting. And in his close reading of New York Magazine's popular Sex Diaries, he was among the first critics to take seriously today's Internet-mediated dating lives.

Yang catches these ugly trends early because he has felt at various times implicated in them, and he does not exempt himself from his radical honesty. His essays retain the thrill of discovery, the wary eye of the first explorer, and the rueful admission of the first exposed.

©2018 Wesley Yang (P)2018 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Wesley Yang's unsparing vision always affects me powerfully." (Mark Greif, author of Against Everything)

What listeners say about The Souls of Yellow Folk

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best essay collections I've read

These are a phenomenal array of criticism of modern America. Yang's focus on sex and physicality as undergirding major aspects of our place in the world is refreshing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A different look

These essays were good to hear,another point of view from another group in society.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Smart, original and beautifully crafted essays

Wesley Yang doesn’t use words as decoration; each has a careful purpose. His observations, and the topics he chooses to observe, are the point, yet the words often add up to poetry anyway. I enjoyed the audiobook so much that I ordered the hardcover in order to note the passages I want to revisit. You won’t be disappointed until it ends. (P.S., the narration is excellent.)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!