“Book-tok” and Asian American Literature

Through the rise of K-POP, Anime, K-Dramas, and Asian fashion in the last decade, Asian culture is more popular than ever in the Western mainstream media. On every social media site you can think of, there are groups of K-pop stans who hero-worship their favorite idols from the farthest corners of the world.

Tumblr pages and Facebook groups of Irish weebs and Greek K-pop stans. Social media has the power of connecting people across the world and influencing people oceans away. The rise of Asian Pop Culture in the West has influenced non-K-pop stans as well, particularly through literature.

As the world was shut down in Quarantine, people retreated into different forms of escapism. Book-tube and “Book-tok” seemed to take the world by storm, and in an instant, a few mainstream "book-tokers" branched off into thousands of other little accounts catering to individual niche genres. These books include Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Ju, and If I Had Your Face by Frances.

Cha rose in popularity across book social media. A mixture of Asian American authors writing about the first-generation immigrant experience, and Asian authors writing about social and political problems in their countries through characters. The book-tok social media phenomenon quickly turned its attention towards these books, turning topics that were once only talked about within Asian American circles into mainstream ones. Books like Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, highlight the Asian American experience and brought together a

collective feeling of an Asian American identity through their words. Cathy Park Hong writes powerful essays, examining the sort of “In-the-margins” place that Asian Americans have in today's society.

Books have always been powerful tools in bringing people together and pushing for social justice. The rise in Asian American literature is a sign of greater things to come in Asian American social justice movements. The rise of Book-tok, its intersection with social movements, and its push for political literacy are signs of what Gen-Z has to come.