In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Lillian Li’s novel Bad Asians is a multi-generational epic that brilliantly explores themes of identity, friendship, and generation gaps.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
“Imbued with humor and sharp social commentary, the novel beautifully explores Asian American identity; economic instability; relationships as both anchor and buoy; the malleability of success; and the ways that ambition manifests itself for better or worse.”
In her own words, here is Lillian Li’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Bad Asians:
I have to confess that I am not a music person. Paradoxically, I am very much a mix CD person. I remember every CD burned on my behalf, the bulk of which were in the early 2000s when I was in middle and high school. Given that this is also when my novel BAD ASIANS is set, mix CDs show up in the book as millennial Easter eggs, along with songs of that era that might seem a little cringe now, but just try not to sing along. This playlist is an ode to a time when songs were divorced from albums—purchased for 99 cents on iTunes or ripped from Limewire—and when you had as many blank CDs decorated with Sharpie in your CD holder as ones you had your parents buy from Borders. I met someone recently who still only buys CDs, and I get it. When you only have 12 or so songs worth of space, you know each one that made the cut meant something to someone.
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day
On a road trip from Maryland to New York, my characters set out with only a Garmin GPS and a plastic bag of mix CDs. This song is on their mix titled “Happy Shit,” which is never explained in the final version of the book, but in earlier drafts was a playlist of songs that sound happy but aren’t. Billie Joe Armstrong’s bitter kiss-off to an ex-girlfriend, turned high school prom staple, is the quintessential song for this genre.
Superstar by SHE
Another mix CD brought on the road trip, this one cut from the final draft, was entirely made up of Asian girl group pop. During a trip to see my grandparents in the early 2000s, I remember being bewildered by the state of pop music in China. While America’s boy/girl band craze had ended a few years ago, it was alive and well an ocean away. SHE was one group I listened to that entire trip and then downloaded illegally when I got back home. I like to imagine that my characters felt the way I did about these groups, which is how Asian American kids feel now about the undeniable popularity of K-pop—here is proof that we can be up on a stage, with millions of fans screaming our name.
G6 by Far East Movement
For that same reason, I have to include Like a G6, the first single by Asian-American artists to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. I almost made the chorus my epigraph for BAD ASIANS, but then Legal said no.
In the End by Linkin Park
Mike Shinoda being part of Linkin Park was another big win for Asian American pop culture dominance. This was a band that hit hard with the Asian suburban kids I grew up with because their lyrics got our struggle, which is, after all, every teenager’s struggle. Peer pressure, parental expectation, conformity, mental health issues—plus you got to scream while singing. It’s no accident that my character Grace chooses this song as her karaoke go-to. The golden child of her hyper-competitive Chinese American community, turned Harvard law school drop-out, she needs to blow off some steam.
Are We There Yet by Dumbfoundead
One last entry in the Asian American artist category, this song by Korean Argentinian rapper Dumbfoundead was introduced to me by my Korean American college boyfriend. Not to generalize, but there’s such a difference between West Coast Asians (which Dumboundead is) and East Coast Asians (which my then-boyfriend was), namely that West Coast Asians become rappers while East Coast Asians just dream about it.
I Melt With You by Modern English
No mix CD is complete without a totally random song that was huge in some era before you were born. When I was a freshman, the seniors on my high school cross country team burned a mix CD of all the songs they would play on their iPod during warm-up. This was the sleeper hit, and it really would pump us up before races despite being such a sweet and goofy tune.
I’ll Be There For You by The Rembrandts
And no mix CD collection is complete without one that your friend burned for you after a romantic rejection. One of my high school best friends, Lee, made me one after a crush friend-zoned me, and this was the big finale song. I swear it healed me.
I’ll Stand By You by The Pretenders
Shortly after, this same friend was crushed by her crush too, and I returned the favor. I remember being moved to tears by my selection of this song, which felt like everything I wanted to communicate to her about our friendship. She found the song overdramatic, which taught me a valuable lesson in showing not telling.
Lillian Li is the author of Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Granta, and Travel + Leisure. She is from the DC metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.