Selected Poems (1994), and What the Fortune Teller
Didn’t Say (1998). Her poems are often centered
on the themes of migration, transculturalism, and
language.
Lim has also published several collections of
short stories: Another Country and Other Stories
(1982), Life’s Mysteries (1995), and Two Dreams:
New and Selected Stories (1997). Divided into three
sections and set in different locations ranging
from Malaysia to the United States, the stories in
Two Dreams explore the issues of cultural clashes
and negotiations, especially for Asian diasporic
people. They also deal with the discovery of sexu-
ality on the part of teenage girls within the context
of a patriarchal society that often responds with
hostility and disgust to women’s assertion of their
feminine identity.
Lim is also the author of a memoir, AMONG
THE WHITE MOON FACES (1996), which won the
American Book Award, and a novel, Joss and Gold
(2001). Joss and Gold highlights issues connected
with cross-cultural encounters, gender roles, and
the aftermath of colonialism. It is divided into
three sections: “Crossing: Kuala Lumpur, 1968–
1969,” “Circling: Westchester County, New York,
1980,” and “Landing: Singapore, 1981,” mirror-
ing the multiple settings of the plot: Malaysia, the
United States, and Singapore. The main character
is a Malaysian tutor of Chinese origin, Li An, who
is torn between her deep love of English poetry
and her allegiance to her culture, which is strug-
gling to reinvent its own identity after the end of
the British colonial rule. She aspires to promote a
new ideal of independent and self-sufficient Asian
women, but her life gets complicated by her mar-
riage to Henry, a trustworthy and reliable man
from her ethnic background, and her attraction
toward Chester, an American Peace Corps volun-
teer. During an anti-Chinese riot in Kuala Lum-
pur in 1969, she is rescued and then seduced by
Chester, who soon returns to his own country to
marry an American woman, leaving Li An preg-
nant. After separating from Henry, Li An moves to
Singapore, becomes a businesswoman, and brings
up her daughter, Suyin.
Lim has coedited several anthologies including
The Forbidden Stitch: an Asian American Women’s
Anthology (1989), recipient of the American Book
Award, and One World Literature: an Anthology of
Contemporary Global Literature (1993). The 1991
collection entitled Approaches to Teaching Kings-
ton’s The Woman Warrior (which she edited and
contributed to) signifies Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s
parallel interest in Asian-American literature and
pedagogy. Besides co-editing a 1992 collection of
essays, Reading the Literatures of Asian America:
Asian American History and Culture, she edited
two other anthologies of scholarly essays: Trans-
national Asia Pacific: Gender, Culture, and the Pub-
lic Sphere (1999) and Power, Race, and Gender in
Academe: Strangers in the Tower? (2000).Bibliography
Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. “On Being Diasporic: An In-
terview with Shirley Geok-lin Lim,” by Elisabetta
Marino. In Transnational, National, and Personal
Voices, edited by Begona Simal and Elisabetta Ma-
rino, 241–255. Munster: Lit Verlag, 2004.
Morgan, Nina. “Locating Shirley Geok-lin Lim.” The
Diasporic Imagination: Asian American Writing,
edited by Somdatta Mandal, 99—110. New Delhi:
Prestige Books, 2000.
Elisabetta MarinoLiu, Aimee E. (1953– )
Born and raised in Connecticut, Liu received a
B.A. from Yale University and worked as a fashion
model and later a flight attendant before writing
full time. She came to closely examine her Chinese
heritage only later in life and through the process
of writing her novels. Her childhood experiences
of growing up in an interracial family living in a
predominantly white neighborhood, and her sense,
at the time, of being an outsider have informed
her writings. Having a Chinese grandfather who
married an American woman, Liu has focused
on questions of interracial marriage rather than
Asian-American experience per se.
Liu’s first book, written when she was 23, was
the memoir Solitaire, which documents the au-
thor’s struggles with and recovery from the eat-
ing disorder anorexia nervosa. Liu attributes herLiu, Aimee E. 171