By Chris Estrada

In their most recent attempt to gain prominence on campus this semester, Northeastern’s new Asian American Center has launched a book club revolving around books told through the eyes of Asian-Americans, but with themes members of any race can appreciate.

The club, which started at the beginning of the fall semester, is also in the process of bringing in the fourth and final author of their selected books for 2005-06 on campus. It is the culmination of a process that started last spring.

“When we started planning the Center last spring, I met with a couple of directors of centers from various other colleges,” Director Andrew Shen said. “[The University of Connecticut] has a book club, and they told me about some of the activities that took place and how much fun people had. They were bringing authors, so I sort of took that idea and ran with it.”

Although the program was organized through the Asian American Center, the 22 members of the book club represent a variety of races, including Caucasian, Latino and African-American students, Shen said. His goal is to welcome anyone with an interest in Asian-American culture.

“One of our primary functions is to be an educational institution, if you will, where we’re trying to share Asian-American experiences with everybody. Because if it was just the issue of Asian-Americans talking about Asian-American ideas, then it isn’t that productive,” he said. “With this book club, people from the whole cross-section of backgrounds and experiences can explore what’s different about the Asian-American experience, and what’s similar.”

The club’s first book was John Hsu and Arar Han’s “Asian American X,” an anthology of essays dealing with everyday issues through the eyes of Asian-Americans. Han, one of the book’s editors, visited the club recently to talk about the book.

The themes found in the book are something Shen and book club members said they view as something people of different races can find in their everyday lives.

“When we were reading the first book, and talking about teenagers growing up, a lot of the things they were dealing with, everyone deals with,” Shen said.

Kalee Kite, a freshman biology major and member of the book club, agreed, and said anyone could relate to the themes discussed in the books.

“The issues the students in the stories went through are not only things that Asian-Americans go through,” Kite said. “They are issues anyone could go through. For example, Asian-Americans are not the only ones with identity issues, parents that do not understand them, or getting excluded from certain things in school or at work because you are a different race.”

Danny Ng, a junior business major who is also a member of the club, said he is grateful to see an “extremely diverse group” that realizes you don’t have to be an Asian-American in order to “extract value from the readings.”

“After some time, the group is able to draw from experiences of those with different backgrounds, which helps us gain a better understanding of different viewpoints as well as our own viewpoints,” Ng said. “One of the main themes of the books is identity – sexual, cultural, racial – something everyone can relate to, certainly not just Asian-Americans.”

Ng also viewed “X” as a way to understand the experiences of the previous generations of Asian-Americans.

“The great thing about the book is that many of us in the book club are too young to have known about much of what happened in the ’70s and ’80s,” Ng said. “Through this book, we have been able to see what previous generations of Asian-Americans had to experience.”

The second book, Helen Zia’s “Asian American Dreams,” has been discussed in their recent Thursday meetings at 403 Ell. Zia will come to Snell Library Dec. 3 to speak on her book, and Dave Yoo, author of the club’s third book, “Girls for Breakfast,” will visit in February, Shen said.

As these and other authors come to talk about their experiences in writing their tales, the members said they hope the club will continue to grow with people of all races in support.

“When I put out a call over the NU announcements, the only requirements were that you had to be able to meet during the meeting times, and that you have an interest in Asian-American issues,” Shen said. “I’m really happy with the different mix. It’s kind of a neat example of a program that is offered through the cultural centers that is intended for everybody.”