We Were Dreamers
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
By: Simu Liu
“I became more than just a comic book character— I became a part of an idea that everyone deserves to see themselves as superheroes, as the leads of their own stories.”
“This book tells the story of an immigrant dream that is shared by tens of millions of families… who continue to fight every day for their happy ending.”
I needed a book written by or about immigrants for my local library’s reading challenge. When I saw Simu Liu wrote a book, I knew I was going to read it. And I would recommend.
Every superhero has an origin story, right?
Simu Liu is Marvel’s Shang-Chi, kung-fu master.
Liu was also in a lesser known Canadian show called Kim’s Convenience (which is on Netflix and should definitely be watched).
This book is the story of how he went from living with his grandparents in China to finding himself in arguably the largest cinematic universe in existence.
I didn’t know his parents were immigrants. It was really interesting to hear about his upbringing and how he got to where he is today.
To be honest, I was hoping for a bit more information and behind the scenes tales of the aforementioned movie/show but unfortunately there wasn’t a place for that.
He begins his story by giving the background of his parents’ upbringing and education in China and their early life together. At this point I’m not really surprised by the things China’s government does to its people, but it’s hard to hear nonetheless.
I was surprised however, by Liu’s comment about Mao Zedong:
“While Mao Zedong’s portrayal in the West is oftentimes that of an unsympathetic dictator, he continues to be revered in China as a great (if flawed) leader who uplifted a nation and brought its people to global prominence.”
This is quite the sentence. Oftentimes? Unsympathetic dictator? Flawed? I would say the majority of the time he’s portrayed as a cruel and evil dictator who was very morally flawed.
Wikipedia informs:
"The government was responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation, persecution, prison labor, and mass executions.”
He was responsible for more deaths than Hitler or Stalin.
Is he publicly revered in China? Yes. When I was in Beijing I saw for myself the long lines for his mausoleum. Is he privately revered? I don’t know. Maybe. But I would guess there are repercussions for anyone speaking out against him or any other leader of China. Sure he helped China become a superpower, but at what cost?
Can we really talk about Mao with a mere disclaimer of ‘he had his faults’? Seems a bit minimizing to me, Simu Liu, but whatevs.
I will say, though, to Simu’s point, that people often view the people of China in light of their leaders, which is unfair. I don’t like China’s government, past or present, but that doesn’t mean their people are all representative of what their government stands for. That’s not how it works in the US either.
That’s part of what went wrong with the Covid virus. People taking out the failures of China’s government and certain institutions out on anyone who was Chinese as if they were responsible for it.
Anyway. Moving on.
This memoir is basically two part: the volatile relationship he had with his parents and the struggles he had as an Asian American.
As to the parental animosity— his parents left him in China to live with grandparents when he was just a baby so they could get jobs in Canada and prepare to bring him over to them. But this immediately created a rift because although they were his parents, he didn’t know them as such for his early years.
Add to that their extreme pressure on him to achieve at the things they wanted him to. Their control and discipline exacerbated the rift.
“I was a walking poster child for model-minority Asian excellence.”
He says this of his mom:
“My mother was, by her own admission, 90 percent good and 10 percent bad. What happened in that 10 percent, though, would leave deep emotional scars that couldn’t be reconciled by the other 90.”
The animosity continued into his adulthood, especially when he got fired from his first accounting job and expressed interest in wanting to act instead of doing a ‘boring office job.’
He indicates that he is in a better place with his parents now, but he didn’t really detail that process for us. Which I found to be a little weird. He spent so much time telling us about all the bad things but then doesn’t bother to tell us when things get better? It doesn’t leave the reader with a good feeling about his parents because most of what we’ve heard up to the end was pretty negative.
"From the rubble of my parents’ broken dream, a new one would be built- one that was not fueled by their definition of success, but by mine.”
This book was an easy read. Turns out Liu’s character Jung, on Kim’s Convenience, is pretty on par with his actual person: doing the bare minimum to get by at work but being a smooth talker, love of the NBA, girls, and video games, estranged from parents. His voice in his writing is very similar too.
I loved all the 90s references. *NSYNC, Nokia phones with snake on them, Full House, etc. He was speaking my language.
I also found his transparency entertaining. I mean not many people admit in writing that they pooped their pants.
Although he’s currently a superhero (which was actually a childhood dream of his) and can krump (this can be a verb right?) with the best of them, he has his nerdy side. He is a numbers guy, has Star Wars memorized, is a Griffyndor, and made his own boy band (LX4) which he acknowledges he took way too seriously.
[Sidenote A: he even wrote his own short film called Crimson Defender vs The Slightly Racist Family in which he played a superhero called the Crimson Defender.]
[Sidenote B: He revealed that J.K. Rowling named her only Chinese character, Cho Chang, which is two last names… in Korean. Whoops!]
[Sidenote C: Because I don’t know where else to put this— this book is somewhat reminiscent of Jenna Fischer’s book The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide because of his tidbits on all the things he tried to get on screen that’s somewhat of a guidebook]
One last thing I found entertaining. He tried to be an accountant but realized it was not for him. He is the opposite personality of the stereotypical accountant.
All three of my siblings are accountants and I was the ‘artist’ of the family. So I felt it deep in my soul when he made fun of his coworker for bragging:
“I’ve tracked every fifteen minutes of my life over the last six years.”
I’m with Simu on this one. I like a good spreadsheet, but there are limits to the excitement this should bring.
My brother is the spreadsheet king and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the coworker Simu was talking about. He even asks his wife for receipts after grabbing a snack at the gas station. Accountants are so fun. (Love you, siblings! But I’m guessing none of you will read this review because it’s not billable and you have spreadsheets to attend to. Okay, I’m done.)
As to his struggle as an Asian American, I found it really interesting to hear his story and the pressures he felt.
He was life of the party. Though partly because, as an Asian American, he was trying to find his place. He often did not feel like he belonged or was accepted. I think that’s natural. Anyone who goes to a new place where they are the minority of any trait, characteristic, or personality, will feel out of place.
As humans, a sense of belonging is a core need. It’s sad when people are excluded because they are different.
However, it did turn me off a bit when he started saying things like:
“Every time I scrolled through my phone, I’d see countless instances of Asian people being pushed to the ground, or punched, or stabbed, or shot.”
He also commented about an all Asian cast on a particular show and appreciating that they cared about diversity. (I tried to find the actual quote but didn’t with the time I had) I’d have to check the definition of diverse, but I believe a diverse cast would have a variety of races.
I care to hear people’s personal stories, but towards the end he started sounding a lot like a megaphone for the media and it became too politically driven. There is definitely a history of racism against Chinese immigrants in America and racism during the Covid pandemic because of the virus’ origins.
But it stopped being about his experiences and started being a billboard for universal Asian hate, something he acknowledges he is passionate about bringing awareness to. I guess I can’t fault him for talking about his passions, but I do feel the general conversations surrounding race have been hijacked at times and often seem to make divisions greater rather than unifying.
America has its faults (like Mao… right?) and areas for improvement, but is there a better country to live in? Is there a better place to achieve your dreams? Simu Liu shows us that even as an immigrant with obstacles to overcome, America provided a place to pursue his dreams, let alone achieve them. Something China is not known to do. That's why there are so many immigrants! It's a good place to come.
We can do better, sure, but it’s too often minimized how great of a country we actually live in. Is there anywhere more diverse? Anywhere with greater freedoms?
Anyway, that’s not a very big portion of the book and I would definitely still recommend it. It was just a small piece of his writing that bugged me because of the cultural context and message I hear allll the time.
Final comments:
It was an easy, funny, and entertaining read and you should read it. (And then watch his show)
There’s just something about these celebrity memoirs that draws me in. What is so fascinating to us about celebrities? I think we all are intrigued to see how people become famous. Every story is different.
That’s what I love about memoirs. We get a peek into someone else’s life that is so different than our own.
There were, however, with this book, a couple missing pieces I already mentioned.
I guess he’s just going to have to write another book to give us the goods on Kim’s Convenience and Shang-Chi!
Okay see you.
This book just released May, 2022. You may use my affiliate link below to purchase a copy.
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