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Book Club: Lunar New Year Love Story · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sandy and Samantha and welcome to Stuff'll
0:07
Speaker 1: never told you a production of by Heart Radio and
0:19
Speaker 1: today spoilers because we're talking about a really recent.
0:23
Speaker 2: I realized it was that recent.
0:25
Speaker 1: I didn't either, but we're talking about the twenty twenty
0:29
Speaker 1: four young adult graphic novel Lunar New Year Love Story,
0:34
Speaker 1: written by Gene Nuen Yang and illustrated by Luhen Fum.
0:39
Speaker 1: And I probably obvious why we chose this, but it's
0:43
Speaker 1: as we record Lunar New Years underway, Yeah, yeah, so
0:49
Speaker 1: we wanted something around that. The inspiration for this work
0:55
Speaker 1: was in part because Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day
0:59
Speaker 1: often overall lap, and Yang's future wife at the time
1:03
Speaker 1: hated Valentine's Day. She thought it was like a big
1:05
Speaker 1: corporate like a lie, and so he really liked it though,
1:10
Speaker 1: so he started to like sort of combine them, like
1:14
Speaker 1: make Lunar New Year themed Valentine's for her, and so
1:21
Speaker 1: that was a part of where this came from. And
1:24
Speaker 1: I just have to say it is really beautifully illustrated.
1:28
Speaker 2: It is. It is such a great work. I felt
1:30
Speaker 2: like graphic novels, we don't see enough women illustrators, so
1:33
Speaker 2: I'm glad to see this, especially in this level. I
1:37
Speaker 2: will say this made me feel really good. I felt
1:40
Speaker 2: really like whole. It was so wholesome, like it literally
1:44
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I like this. I also love
1:49
Speaker 2: that they I don't know, we're gonna talk about a minute,
1:51
Speaker 2: but like they have a combination of different Asian ethnicities
1:55
Speaker 2: and you don't see that a lot, especially in a
1:57
Speaker 2: conversation about Lunar New Year. Yeah, what you would think
2:00
Speaker 2: would be. But it's kind of divisive surprisingly.
2:04
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I mean it is. And I read
2:10
Speaker 1: a bunch of interviews with the creators and it's really
2:12
Speaker 1: interesting because both of them are illustrators and writers. But
2:17
Speaker 1: the writer really felt like he wanted because the main
2:22
Speaker 1: character is a young teenage girl. It's like, we need
2:24
Speaker 1: a woman to do this, and he was saying how
2:28
Speaker 1: much she added to it through that, And so that's
2:30
Speaker 1: the importance of like making those decisions and those steps,
2:34
Speaker 1: because it really did show. It's absolutely beautiful. Oh my gosh.
2:38
Speaker 1: All right, so I'm going to run through the plot.
2:41
Speaker 3: It is a bit.
2:42
Speaker 1: Longer than what we normally do. It's a graphic novel,
2:47
Speaker 1: so you know, it moves there's images, but the images
2:51
Speaker 1: are so much to take in.
2:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, they put a lot of folklore in here too,
2:55
Speaker 2: like a thing that wouldn't be including an Italian figure.
3:00
Speaker 1: Yes, I can't wait to talk about that because I
3:02
Speaker 1: was like, wait, what is this? I must let this
3:06
Speaker 1: up immediately. So it is a lot going on. But yeah,
3:12
Speaker 1: it's absolutely worth it. But I'm going to try to
3:15
Speaker 1: condense it is what I'm attempting to say. The story
3:18
Speaker 1: primarily takes place in Oakland, California, and follows Vietnamese American
3:23
Speaker 1: Valentina Tran through a montage. In the beginning, we learned
3:27
Speaker 1: that Vow was named for Valentine's Day, the day of
3:30
Speaker 1: her conception. She has a quote imaginary friend named Saint
3:36
Speaker 1: v who's essentially a cupid and encourages her to love, love,
3:42
Speaker 1: and celebrate Valentine's Day. Val especially loves Valentine's because she
3:47
Speaker 1: gets mysterious cards in her walker every year. We also
3:51
Speaker 1: learn that she lives alone with her dad after the
3:54
Speaker 1: death of her mom. Anyway, every year she makes her
3:58
Speaker 1: class and her dad cute but very dorky. Valentin's like
4:01
Speaker 1: the one she gets to relock her sometimes with the
4:04
Speaker 1: help from her friend from ballet, Bernice. However, when they
4:08
Speaker 1: get to high school, they've quit ballet. Bernice increasingly makes
4:13
Speaker 1: fun of her, saying that they were too old for it.
4:16
Speaker 1: It seems like the class agrees, and a lot of
4:20
Speaker 1: them make fun of her when they realize she was
4:23
Speaker 1: the one who made these cards. However, one person, Jay,
4:28
Speaker 1: seems moved, but the rest of the class mocks him
4:32
Speaker 1: and he chairs up the card. Then, later that day,
4:37
Speaker 1: her father cries and asks her to please stop doing it, like,
4:40
Speaker 1: please stop giving me this card. The following day, her
4:44
Speaker 1: paternal grandmother shows up without warning and has an argument
4:48
Speaker 1: with her son and Vietnamese before dragging Val off to church.
4:52
Speaker 1: While there, she sees a statue of Saint Valentine, really foreboding,
4:56
Speaker 1: menacing statue that replaces the cupid version of Saint vis.
5:03
Speaker 1: This happens after her grandmother reveals her mother isn't actually
5:07
Speaker 1: dead but instead left and is getting married. Overwhelmed and hurt,
5:13
Speaker 1: Val dismisses her grandmother and has a huge fight with
5:16
Speaker 1: her dad, and Valentine's day is now ruined for her.
5:21
Speaker 1: Off off the table, Val starts dating. It doesn't start
5:26
Speaker 1: up great. Meanwhile, her friend Bernice is very openly going
5:31
Speaker 1: through as many people as possible, like she's dating as
5:34
Speaker 1: many people as possible. For a short time, VAL's relationship
5:39
Speaker 1: with her dad deteriorates to the point that they barely talk.
5:43
Speaker 1: One night, Vow comes home and he's very drunk. She
5:47
Speaker 1: isn't sure what to do, so she contacts her grandmother
5:50
Speaker 1: after two years, I believe, who comes over and informs
5:56
Speaker 1: Val it was the day that her mother had gotten remarried.
6:00
Speaker 1: Her grandmother laments about how there are no happy couples
6:04
Speaker 1: in their family and how they are unlucky in love.
6:07
Speaker 1: Saint v tells her we can only count on suffering,
6:11
Speaker 1: and when Val asks if there's a way out, he
6:13
Speaker 1: tells her to give him her heart and she won't
6:16
Speaker 1: hurt anymore. She won't hurt her again. She promises to
6:20
Speaker 1: give it to him in a year if she doesn't
6:23
Speaker 1: find true love. Her grandmother takes her to the local
6:29
Speaker 1: lunar New Year's celebration, and Val instantly loves it. There
6:33
Speaker 1: she sees a lion dance, and from the mouths of
6:36
Speaker 1: one of the lions, she receives a red envelope with
6:39
Speaker 1: a red paper heart Valentine in it. Like the ones
6:42
Speaker 1: she used to make and hand out. After the dance
6:45
Speaker 1: is over, she recognizes one of the dancers as Jay,
6:48
Speaker 1: the boy who had ripped up her valentine. She tries
6:52
Speaker 1: to give back the heart valentine, thinking it was him,
6:55
Speaker 1: but Jay's cousin Less intervenes, and VAL's quickly attracted to
7:00
Speaker 1: Less and goes on a date with him, or a
7:03
Speaker 1: sort of date. However, we learned that Jay made the
7:06
Speaker 1: valentine despite what Val thinks, so Val doesn't know it,
7:09
Speaker 1: but we as the audience know it. Val picks up
7:13
Speaker 1: lion dancing, which features two dancers, the Head and the Tail,
7:17
Speaker 1: where she is tutored by Less. It doesn't go well
7:20
Speaker 1: at first, and Jay annoys her, telling her she's treating
7:24
Speaker 1: it like just a dance when it's more than that.
7:26
Speaker 1: The head and the tail of the lion must become
7:29
Speaker 1: one and dances one one heart. Her and Less improve
7:34
Speaker 1: and she sees this as a sign of their relationship
7:37
Speaker 1: being true love, like, oh, it's going in the right direction.
7:40
Speaker 1: And just to mention, Less has a huge media presence
7:46
Speaker 1: like social media. I was looking at his followers, was like, WHOA,
7:53
Speaker 1: And he's very rich, his father's very rich, but anyway,
7:58
Speaker 1: Les impresses Val with very expensive date and takes a
8:02
Speaker 1: selfie of their first kiss, which I have to say
8:04
Speaker 1: would be a huge turn off for me, but you know, dude,
8:07
Speaker 1: do as you will. Jay apologizes for ripping up the
8:12
Speaker 1: Valentine's state guard. Meanwhile, Less starts flirting with other girls
8:16
Speaker 1: in front of Val and refuses to say that they're
8:20
Speaker 1: dating like he and valor dating, they.
8:23
Speaker 2: Do not have a DTR.
8:24
Speaker 1: They do not have. So annoyed, Val continues to see him.
8:32
Speaker 1: So she's annoyed, but she's like, okay whatever. She really
8:36
Speaker 1: wants to find this true love. She invites her dad
8:39
Speaker 1: to one of her Lion dance performances and meets Jay
8:42
Speaker 1: and Less's families. At the performance, Val sees the girls
8:46
Speaker 1: Less it's been flirting with and posting about, and trips
8:50
Speaker 1: up a bit, causing Less to hurt his ankle. Other
8:53
Speaker 1: than that, it mostly goes off without a hitch. As
8:56
Speaker 1: Less in her grow further apart, she grows closer to Jay,
8:59
Speaker 1: who had that his father died of cancer when he
9:02
Speaker 1: was young and that the Valentine's stay card he ripped
9:04
Speaker 1: up reminded Jay of him, and then the classmates laughed
9:09
Speaker 1: and so he tore it up. He also shares that
9:13
Speaker 1: he was quote too much of a coward to visit
9:16
Speaker 1: his father in the hospital when he was dying, not
9:19
Speaker 1: wanting to see him like that, and that he still
9:21
Speaker 1: sees a vision of him. Lion dancing dispels evil spirits
9:26
Speaker 1: and brings good fortune, and he hopes it will give
9:28
Speaker 1: him peace with his father. Val realizes that she might
9:32
Speaker 1: not be alone and seeing ghosts or some kind of apparition,
9:37
Speaker 1: so she starts lyon dancing solo in her room to
9:41
Speaker 1: ward off Saint be and it kind of works for
9:44
Speaker 1: a while. Crags start to show in her relationship with Bernice,
9:48
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to turn out like her parents trapped
9:51
Speaker 1: in a miserable marriage, so ends them early. She believes
9:55
Speaker 1: Vows You of Love is naive. Vows relationship with Les
9:58
Speaker 1: becomes increasingly two as he continually is with other girls
10:03
Speaker 1: and not her. At the same time, she grows closer
10:06
Speaker 1: to Jay and admits to him her visions of Saint
10:10
Speaker 1: v The Lion Dancers start performing at weddings until one
10:14
Speaker 1: fateful one where she chooses. Val chooses to dance with
10:19
Speaker 1: Jay over less because she's seeing Saint v and she's like,
10:22
Speaker 1: you understand it, Please dance with me and almost kisses him,
10:27
Speaker 1: and then runs into her biological mother, who reveals she
10:32
Speaker 1: actually tried to come back, but her father wouldn't let
10:37
Speaker 1: her come back, and that the mysterious valentines she'd been
10:41
Speaker 1: getting in her locker had been from her. This wedding
10:45
Speaker 1: was a performance for her new husband's clients, and this
10:48
Speaker 1: new husband pushes Val, causing Jay to shove him into
10:53
Speaker 1: the wedding cake. Val confronts her dad again. Distraught, she
10:58
Speaker 1: calls Jay, who meets her and takes her to a
11:00
Speaker 1: spot where they can sit on the trunk of the
11:02
Speaker 1: car and look at the moon and stars. It kind
11:04
Speaker 1: of cuddles a little bit. However, the next day, he
11:09
Speaker 1: informs Val that last actually does care about her and
11:12
Speaker 1: he can't hurt his cousin by pursuing anything with her.
11:15
Speaker 1: On top of that, the dance club is being sued
11:18
Speaker 1: because of what happened at the wedding, so they're not
11:21
Speaker 1: doing anything. Les invites her to practice with him and
11:25
Speaker 1: Jay and their uncle. However, that ends pretty abruptly when
11:29
Speaker 1: Val confesses some of her feelings for Jay and he
11:34
Speaker 1: doesn't answer, and she leaves. Okay, here come a bunch
11:39
Speaker 1: of moving pieces. This is the finale, so lot's going on.
11:44
Speaker 1: Val and Bernice have a huge fight about love and
11:47
Speaker 1: being dead inside maybe. After Bernice blocks Jay's number on
11:52
Speaker 1: Bell's phone, Jay's mother tells him she's going back to Korea,
11:57
Speaker 1: and Val decides to go with her grandmother and her
12:00
Speaker 1: Golden Girls on a trip to Rome. Depressed about Val,
12:07
Speaker 1: Jay decides to move to Korea with his mother after
12:10
Speaker 1: the Lunar New Year Lion Dance. VAL's having a great
12:15
Speaker 1: time in Rome. I love this, and her grandmother introduces
12:20
Speaker 1: her to her maternal grandmother, who is a nun. Jay's
12:25
Speaker 1: uncle gets Jay and Last to talk it out. Jay
12:29
Speaker 1: talks to his father's ghosts and makes a heart Valentine
12:33
Speaker 1: for vow and gives it to Bernice, who of course
12:36
Speaker 1: reads it. On a tour in Rome, Val sees the
12:39
Speaker 1: skull of Saint Valentine, who essentially tells her love hurts,
12:43
Speaker 1: but it's worth it. Bernice gets a hold of Val,
12:48
Speaker 1: The two makeup, and Bernice tells her that Jay is
12:51
Speaker 1: planning on leaving after the Lunar New Year, and he
12:54
Speaker 1: asks Val to come and say goodbye with the help
12:57
Speaker 1: of her grandmothers, as in both of her g brothers
13:01
Speaker 1: winning poker money, so they basically are like, hey, who
13:05
Speaker 1: owes us money from their group because they have these
13:08
Speaker 1: weekly poker nights. Val is able to afford a flight change,
13:14
Speaker 1: which we all know are very expensive. I was like,
13:16
Speaker 1: no way, it makes it back just in time. She
13:21
Speaker 1: makes Jay a valentine that says my heart is yours
13:25
Speaker 1: and dances in the opposing lion, passing it to Jay,
13:28
Speaker 1: and the dance does vanquishing, saying b they kiss. She
13:33
Speaker 1: reconnects with her mother and her father happily ever after. Perfect. Yeah,
13:42
Speaker 1: it's a very sweet, very sweet ending. Oh we'll talk
13:49
Speaker 1: about this more later. But the illustrations are so great
13:51
Speaker 1: because like there's just kind of a creepy vibe throughout, yeah,
13:57
Speaker 1: with Saint Vee, and then at the end it's just
14:00
Speaker 1: so bright. It's just like such a bright thing.
14:03
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
14:15
Speaker 1: Okay, So themes obviously a big theme in this is
14:19
Speaker 1: love and true love. So this is in part demonstrated
14:26
Speaker 1: through color and I really if you're interested in it,
14:32
Speaker 1: you can look up interviews with illustrator and she talks
14:36
Speaker 1: about being very particular and deliberate about the color choices.
14:42
Speaker 1: But also it made me kind of laugh because it
14:44
Speaker 1: reminded me of when we got our book who had
14:47
Speaker 1: a little bit It had a little bit of graphic
14:49
Speaker 1: novel portions printed and they were talking about the difficulty
14:52
Speaker 1: of getting it printed. Yeah. I was like, yep, yeah,
14:57
Speaker 1: I related.
14:57
Speaker 2: We had to come back and be like, we have
14:59
Speaker 2: did use color. There's only us, it's only us.
15:06
Speaker 1: But yes, it's especially clear with Saint V and then
15:10
Speaker 1: later Saint Valentine because Saint V is like a dark
15:14
Speaker 1: and scary void and when he's around, or it's around,
15:19
Speaker 1: it drains the color from Vou, like she becomes really
15:25
Speaker 1: kind of grayish. Meanwhile, the Cupid version, the first version
15:29
Speaker 1: is very childlike, very bright.
15:33
Speaker 3: Uh.
15:33
Speaker 1: And then the last version, which I call like the
15:36
Speaker 1: reality is a colorful skull with a flower crown. And
15:43
Speaker 1: it's an amalgamation of them, both the good and the
15:46
Speaker 1: bad and the difficulty and the pain and the beauty.
15:50
Speaker 1: But it's really cool because the creators have talked about
15:54
Speaker 1: it and it's like, you know, when you're a kid,
15:57
Speaker 1: you believe true love is this perfect, beautiful what I've
16:03
Speaker 1: seen in whatever movie, and then you have your first heartbreak,
16:08
Speaker 1: and then it's like this is for the birds? What
16:11
Speaker 1: is this? This is the same, and why do I
16:14
Speaker 1: want this? And then when you kind of mature, you
16:16
Speaker 1: realize it's both right, it's both of these things.
16:22
Speaker 2: I mean definitely in that conversation we have that her
16:25
Speaker 2: first heartbreak was her dad lying to her about his
16:28
Speaker 2: one romance, like the one true love of his life
16:30
Speaker 2: that died, and so they mourned it like that. So
16:32
Speaker 2: she had this embellishment of love.
16:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think a lot of kids have that,
16:37
Speaker 1: where you idealize maybe a parental, some sort of romantic
16:43
Speaker 1: relationship in your life. You think, ah, true love is
16:45
Speaker 1: real because here it is, and then if something happens
16:50
Speaker 1: like oh no, okay, it's not, it's very It is
16:55
Speaker 1: a very destabilizing thing of like I thought I knew
16:58
Speaker 1: what it was, right. It's also very clearly talking about
17:02
Speaker 1: the kind of hoole better to have loved and lost
17:04
Speaker 1: than never to have loved at all. I think you
17:08
Speaker 1: see that with Bernice. Bernice is dealing with a different
17:11
Speaker 1: issue with her parents where she's like, oh, she didn't
17:15
Speaker 1: have that idea of idealized love. Instead she was like, no,
17:21
Speaker 1: I'm going to protect myself from this because I see
17:25
Speaker 1: how bad it is over here. So she kind of
17:28
Speaker 1: had to come back and realize there can be there
17:35
Speaker 1: can be this real emotional depth of love and it's
17:41
Speaker 1: worth it, at least to my friend to pursue it.
17:46
Speaker 1: And it's also like it talks a lot about the
17:48
Speaker 1: pain of shutting yourself off, because like, if you think
17:51
Speaker 1: about it, if this Saint VI, the kind of dark
17:55
Speaker 1: version is telling her like, oh, you'll be numb, but
17:58
Speaker 1: it won't hurt right, Her father's actions because of being
18:02
Speaker 1: afraid of being hurt again hurt her. It definitely feels
18:06
Speaker 1: like the illustration of Saint V when he's in that
18:11
Speaker 1: form looks like a grim reaper like it does. It's
18:15
Speaker 1: a it doesn't look good, right, I.
18:20
Speaker 2: Mean, he and the version of the father that jc's
18:25
Speaker 2: are similar, are similar in the realm.
18:28
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's.
18:29
Speaker 2: Interesting because you also have that shut off that shut
18:32
Speaker 2: away his family, Like she didn't see her grandmother for
18:35
Speaker 2: a very long time, and she didn't know why her mother.
18:39
Speaker 2: Essentially it was just him and her in the world
18:40
Speaker 2: and that's what he wanted. And then but the world
18:43
Speaker 2: came crushing in on him because his wife was getting married,
18:46
Speaker 2: and because he had shut hisself off, he didn't have
18:49
Speaker 2: any of the relationships. It had been years years, Yeah,
18:53
Speaker 2: and he still was pining over that.
18:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that We're gonna talk about that
18:58
Speaker 1: more later. But that is another big theme in this.
19:00
Speaker 1: It's like facing realities and truths. And so I think
19:04
Speaker 1: it's interesting you brought up Jay's father does look like that,
19:09
Speaker 1: but Jay wants to see him. He feels guilt.
19:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, that he doesn't want to seem like that exactly
19:15
Speaker 2: the thing.
19:17
Speaker 1: But that's he had to face it. That's what he
19:19
Speaker 1: wanted because of his guilt. Okay. Also just to mention,
19:25
Speaker 1: there are a lot of fun romantic tropes in this look.
19:31
Speaker 2: The Asian community loves a good trope and they live
19:34
Speaker 2: in them like they have not passed by it. And
19:36
Speaker 2: I think that's what makes them successful right now, is
19:38
Speaker 2: because we kind of want to go back to it
19:40
Speaker 2: because the reality sucks, so tropes make it better.
19:43
Speaker 1: Okay, it's true. I mean we recently did You're a
19:47
Speaker 1: Mondane mini on. There's a reason we like tropes. It's
19:52
Speaker 1: kind of fun. You're kind of predicting, like, oh, when
19:55
Speaker 1: is this going to happen?
19:56
Speaker 2: Right, and then you can predict that this is going
19:58
Speaker 2: to have happy ending. That's gonna Yeah, it.
20:01
Speaker 1: Is kind of nice. So we've got the interrupted near kiss,
20:07
Speaker 1: the airport, Oh my goodness, the love triangle, weddings, Valentine's Day,
20:16
Speaker 1: misunderstandings galore, ultimatum's kind of I don't think it's necessarily
20:23
Speaker 1: they like I'm leaving for Korea, please come say goodbye, right,
20:27
Speaker 1: like that kind of thing, and then sort of like
20:30
Speaker 1: go find yourself on a trip.
20:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean you also have the older ladies
20:37
Speaker 2: being the funny antagonist, yeah, which is a big Asian trope,
20:41
Speaker 2: as well as apparent leaving. Whether it's like a Panama,
20:46
Speaker 2: that's a big.
20:46
Speaker 1: Trope in all of them.
20:47
Speaker 2: I don't know why. And usually the mother, I want
20:49
Speaker 2: to say that is always the bad guy. Even for
20:52
Speaker 2: j the mother was always seen as drunk. She wasn't
20:55
Speaker 2: handling herself either, So I'm like, why do you hate
20:57
Speaker 2: moms so much?
20:59
Speaker 1: The grandmothers yes, well, I love that.
21:04
Speaker 2: The one grandmother that she just met who has become
21:07
Speaker 2: a nun was like, don't call me grandmother, there, call
21:11
Speaker 2: me sister.
21:13
Speaker 1: She's also like, being a nun is not for you.
21:16
Speaker 1: Which I appreciated but was kind of funny.
21:20
Speaker 2: But like this whole level of like and then the
21:22
Speaker 2: other grandmother being like, yeah, I forgave your father and
21:25
Speaker 2: he's like, I didn't apologize, I just called you, and
21:27
Speaker 2: she's like, yeah, it's close enough.
21:30
Speaker 1: She really she was like, I need to step in.
21:33
Speaker 1: I need to interviewed here.
21:35
Speaker 2: I mean like, if it was like Korean drama, yes,
21:37
Speaker 2: the how Many would definitely be the one that comes
21:39
Speaker 2: through and a little bit overtaking, obnoxiously so, but out
21:44
Speaker 2: of good heart.
21:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that definitely that was the vibe I
21:48
Speaker 1: got just show up.
21:50
Speaker 2: Did she criticize her wait, a little bit, yes.
21:54
Speaker 1: Which is pretty wild because she's married thin, but all.
21:57
Speaker 2: Right because it was a chefoy ardi she was. But
22:02
Speaker 2: to be fair, if she wants to come and cook
22:05
Speaker 2: a Vietnamese iner for me and homemade fuh, I would
22:08
Speaker 2: take those that kind of slander.
22:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too, absolutely, no question, no question, we're going
22:16
Speaker 1: to unpact. Some of those family tropes weren't a bit,
22:18
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to mention. There's also some things
22:21
Speaker 1: like around relationships and dating I just found interesting, and
22:25
Speaker 1: one of them is this is a pretty like social
22:29
Speaker 1: media is involved in it, and it was interesting to
22:33
Speaker 1: see how dating looks in our modern age. But one
22:38
Speaker 1: of the things that came up with me is that
22:40
Speaker 1: whole labels that.
22:42
Speaker 2: Dt R, the DTR she tried to have. Am I
22:45
Speaker 2: the girlfriend or am I not?
22:46
Speaker 1: And he's like, we're together girl, yeah, but not really
22:51
Speaker 1: these other three girls when he shows up, and it's
22:54
Speaker 1: kind of like apologizing, and then the other girls, Sophia appears.
22:59
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
23:01
Speaker 1: But that I mean, that is a thing, and I
23:03
Speaker 1: will admit this. This came up in like my past
23:07
Speaker 1: relationship pretty hard because I just wasn't on social media,
23:09
Speaker 1: and I kept saying, it's not I'm not like trying
23:15
Speaker 1: to despite you or something odd like.
23:18
Speaker 2: Do you And especially if you've been married for years,
23:20
Speaker 2: it kind of identifies you, like meaning like, oh, that's
23:23
Speaker 2: so and so and so and so that makes sense,
23:25
Speaker 2: like when my parents do it, you know, that makes sense,
23:28
Speaker 2: kind of like you have a generic name, oh who
23:30
Speaker 2: you're married to? Oh, I know those parts. But like
23:32
Speaker 2: even now, obviously we're not on Facebook as much, and
23:35
Speaker 2: like that's kind of more of a boomer ish thing now,
23:41
Speaker 2: especially now, but like I even when I first started it,
23:45
Speaker 2: doing relationship stuff was so weird to me to announce it,
23:48
Speaker 2: like why, it's not like you're married, like it's you
23:51
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like that, I could see engagement
23:53
Speaker 2: as a way of like showing making an announcement essentially,
23:57
Speaker 2: but to be like, I'm not single, I'm in a relationship.
24:00
Speaker 1: It's complicated, Like it's complicated.
24:03
Speaker 2: Oh my, tell weird.
24:07
Speaker 1: It was?
24:08
Speaker 3: It was.
24:09
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess maybe that's your sign to tell
24:12
Speaker 2: that other person you want a DTR when you put
24:14
Speaker 2: it's complicated.
24:17
Speaker 1: See clearly this was really interesting for me because one
24:21
Speaker 1: time my ex boyfriend asked me for the GTR and
24:24
Speaker 1: I just started crying. That's just my first sign something
24:27
Speaker 1: was wrong.
24:30
Speaker 2: Yes, that would be the sad.
24:32
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting it. I don't, I don't know, but yeah,
24:36
Speaker 1: it's But when I was reading this, I was like, no,
24:39
Speaker 1: clearly he isn't the wrong or at least like that's
24:43
Speaker 1: a pretty thing to do, right. So it was introspective
24:47
Speaker 1: for me. Also, I feel like a lot of this
24:53
Speaker 1: was about understanding the ups and downs and people's flalls
24:56
Speaker 1: and their history, but also the you know, the things
25:01
Speaker 1: they're good at and because I feel like every character
25:04
Speaker 1: had you know, they're goods, they're goods and the bads
25:07
Speaker 1: and relationships are also like that. And I would add
25:11
Speaker 1: in here the love between friends because Bernice and Val
25:19
Speaker 1: had a pretty bad fight, but they they both made
25:27
Speaker 1: up and it wasn't like the smoothest makeup or anything
25:31
Speaker 1: like that, but like the effort because they've been friends
25:34
Speaker 1: for a long time. So I would say that's a team.
25:47
Speaker 1: And then yes, truth and lies. Oh my gosh, so
25:52
Speaker 1: much family drama in this, so much family drama. Her
25:59
Speaker 1: father and his multiple lives, like not just the one
26:03
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh wow, then there's the second one
26:06
Speaker 1: that comes later, yeah okay, And then you don't get
26:13
Speaker 1: to see the mother too much. I feel like you
26:17
Speaker 1: get a good vibe from her in that short time
26:19
Speaker 1: she's there, and also from the mouad she married the dude.
26:22
Speaker 1: She's still married the dish.
26:24
Speaker 2: And he tried to push her out, like that's sketch
26:28
Speaker 2: who already had a bad like everybody had a bad
26:30
Speaker 2: taste in his mouth, but just him talking being like
26:33
Speaker 2: the way he was, and so I'm like, I don't
26:37
Speaker 2: know about your choices, Mom, Yeah.
26:40
Speaker 1: That GAP's no good but it does seem like again
26:44
Speaker 1: she is she's interested in rekindling this relationship, but she
26:49
Speaker 1: she was the one leaving those dorky round times. She
26:53
Speaker 1: was giving them to her to the grandmother, the paternal grandmother,
26:59
Speaker 1: to put them in her locker. But she also kept
27:03
Speaker 1: saying the past is in the past, which I thought
27:05
Speaker 1: was interesting, And a big theme of this was, as
27:10
Speaker 1: we said, confronting truth directly instead of kind of speaking
27:15
Speaker 1: around them or never talking about them, but actually talking
27:20
Speaker 1: it out, and that you see over and over again
27:24
Speaker 1: with a bunch of different characters. And also the fear
27:28
Speaker 1: of repeating the mistakes of the past. You also see that,
27:33
Speaker 1: So it's kind of overcoming some of the trauma of
27:40
Speaker 1: the past, but by facing it directly instead of just
27:45
Speaker 1: like dismissing it. Yes, then family, family was big, and
27:53
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, learning from older generations I think was
27:56
Speaker 1: a pretty big theme. You have VAL's grand mother her,
28:01
Speaker 1: you also have Jay's uncle, both of them very influential,
28:08
Speaker 1: very like, here's the information you need, here's what we're
28:11
Speaker 1: going to do. Step in, let's go yep. And of
28:17
Speaker 1: course identity, religion, and culture. So I again really recommend
28:22
Speaker 1: reading interviews with the creators because it was really really
28:28
Speaker 1: interesting because it's kind of a it's a smash up
28:33
Speaker 1: of cultures, right, because you've got Valentine's Day, which is
28:37
Speaker 1: very Western, and then you got Lunar New Year, which
28:40
Speaker 1: is very Eastern, and having them come together and that
28:44
Speaker 1: kind of representing val and her life experience as a
28:52
Speaker 1: first generation immigrant. But it was really interesting to read.
28:56
Speaker 1: And you know, this is way too big of a
28:57
Speaker 1: topic to go in here, but the illustrator, especially when
29:04
Speaker 1: it comes to religion, she says she thought Christianity growing up.
29:09
Speaker 1: She thought Christianity was Eastern because it was just so commonplace,
29:14
Speaker 1: and she never occurred to her that it wasn't because
29:18
Speaker 1: you have like the grandmother and the story taking her
29:22
Speaker 1: to It's Catholic church, right at church. Catholic. Yeah, and
29:27
Speaker 1: so it's really fascinating read. And as you alluded to earlier,
29:34
Speaker 1: because the writers of the writer's backgrounds, this story has Chinese, Korean,
29:39
Speaker 1: and Vietnamese elements, So that's really cool. That's really cool
29:44
Speaker 1: to see. And then you got like vow not knowing
29:48
Speaker 1: the language and traditions and kind of being shamed for
29:51
Speaker 1: it at a couple of points in the story, and
29:57
Speaker 1: there's also a whole thing about the symbolism of the
29:59
Speaker 1: lion in Christianity and in Eastern culture that they write
30:03
Speaker 1: they write about to the creators have spoken about too,
30:06
Speaker 1: and that is really interesting. So a lot of cool
30:10
Speaker 1: stuff here. Food, Yes, I love how much food is
30:15
Speaker 1: it involved? Yes, which is also like going back to
30:19
Speaker 1: the chef boyard e versus like all these other things.
30:23
Speaker 1: That's like the mashup the rough cultures, uh, prevalent, prevalent throughout.
30:29
Speaker 2: I love the grandmother bringing her own rice to an
30:31
Speaker 2: Italian restaurant.
30:33
Speaker 3: Yes.
30:35
Speaker 1: And in the background earlier one of them is like,
30:38
Speaker 1: I hope my rice cooker made it through customs.
30:41
Speaker 2: Yes, I missed that one completely, but I think it's fantastic.
30:45
Speaker 2: I love the fact that they do bring in so
30:47
Speaker 2: many themes, and they kind of shame her because she
30:50
Speaker 2: doesn't know, as you were saying, the Vietnamese culture. But
30:53
Speaker 2: it had to do with the fact that her dad
30:54
Speaker 2: was shutting all the culture out once again and she
30:58
Speaker 2: lost that. And ironic that the dude who shamed her
31:01
Speaker 2: the most outside of the grandmother was her now stepdad,
31:05
Speaker 2: not knowing that he was about to be her stepdad.
31:08
Speaker 3: Yep.
31:09
Speaker 1: Again not a great guy, not a good guy, not
31:12
Speaker 1: a great fan, not a fan, no no. Our situation
31:19
Speaker 1: was strange too because it was Lesa's dad who was
31:23
Speaker 1: trying to secure a business.
31:25
Speaker 2: Partnership, so he had a bond me place yes, and
31:29
Speaker 2: he was trying to even use Vale at one point,
31:31
Speaker 2: be like, tell me a bunch of culture so I
31:32
Speaker 2: can get this business.
31:36
Speaker 1: And then, of course, lastly, obviously a lunar New Year
31:40
Speaker 1: was a big theme. Whyan dancing was a big theme.
31:44
Speaker 1: Reconnecting with yourself and with people, and culture was a
31:48
Speaker 1: really big, really big theme. So I loved it. It
31:54
Speaker 1: was absolutely beautiful, It was fun. There's a lot of drama,
31:59
Speaker 1: but it was but.
32:01
Speaker 2: It was a feel good book. I really was like,
32:02
Speaker 2: oh oh oh, this will have an impact, like it
32:08
Speaker 2: will be one of those that I think back on.
32:09
Speaker 2: I'm like for that scene. It is and the illustrations
32:13
Speaker 2: are gorgeous and it's perfect in line with like the
32:17
Speaker 2: New Year stuff. So go find it, use it, celebrate
32:21
Speaker 2: with it, learn some stuff I feel like it can be.
32:24
Speaker 2: Don't do too much because it could be a little
32:26
Speaker 2: bit racist, but they're talking about their own culture, so beware, right,
32:31
Speaker 2: always always remember if you're not Asian.
32:36
Speaker 1: Don't laugh too hard. Oh no, I laugh when I'm nervous.
32:41
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. It's one of the things I'm working
32:46
Speaker 1: on though. Hey, laughing is not a bad thing.
32:50
Speaker 3: Hmm.
32:51
Speaker 1: Well yeah, definitely go check it out. It's it's really
32:57
Speaker 1: really great read. And if you have any suggestions for
33:02
Speaker 1: what we should do next on book Club, please let
33:05
Speaker 1: us know. You can email us at Hello, at stuff
33:09
Speaker 1: Whenever Told You dot com, or at stuff via mom
33:12
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Speaker 1: on YouTube. We have a tea public store, and we
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Speaker 1: have a book you can get wherever you get your books.
33:24
Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer, Castine, their executive producer,
33:27
Speaker 1: and your contributor Joey. Thank you and the se for listening.
33:31
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