Face-to-Face on Racial Identity

As a part of the NYU Shanghai Literary Reading series, lecturer Chidelia Edochie introduced Jess Row who read excerpts from his novel Your Face in Mine, which draws on his own life experiences abroad in Hong Kong and in his hometown of Baltimore, as well as research conducted in Thailand. Row described his work as a commentary on the “American neurosis” surrounding racial issues, which he said “has expanded to the world outlook.”

Row’s novel is set in a world where undergoing racial reassignment surgery is on the verge of becoming a common practice. This process involves taking on the characteristics of a different race entirely as well as assimilating into a new society. The novel’s protagonist, Kelly, transitions into becoming Chinese, after having  learned that a racially transformed friend of his is hoping to become a global entrepreneur for these types of surgeries. He is ultimately told by his prospective surgeon that he is not “broken enough [to undergo racial reassignment surgery],” but takes the plunge anyway, hoping to escape the pain of having lost his Chinese wife and their daughter to a tragic car accident.

When asked about his relationship to Hong Kong during the concluding Q&A session, Row said though he felt he could never feel a true sense of cultural belonging, he “loved it in the most impossible way.”