Q&A: 5 Questions for Jane Wong
2023; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 97; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wlt.2023.a901370
ISSN1945-8134
AutoresMichelle Johnson, Jane Yeang Chui Wong,
ResumoQ&A5 Questions for Jane Wong Michelle Johnson (bio) and Jane Wong (bio) Jane Wong’s memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is a “story of lost enterprises”—for example, her family’s restaurant—but it’s also a story of a tender sibling relationship, a strong and comforting mother, the Great Famine, friendship among co-workers, anti-Asian violence, food, pageants, Ping-Pong Diplomacy, and much more. The author of two poetry collections, Wong displays her talent in her first book of prose. Q Near the end of the book, you mention joking with your friends about making a podcast called We Don’t Talk about Poetry, where you’d invite poets to discuss anything else: “thrifting, kitchen utensils, pet food, sex toys, house plants, lipsticks, stretches for lower-back pain.” I’d listen to this. Do you have any favorite podcasts? A Your encouragement is much appreciated! We really do need to make this podcast then, ha! It’s very much like real life. It’s so funny to me that so many of my friends are poets, and yet we so rarely talk about poetry. Which then makes me wonder if everything is a poem (is lipstick a poem?). I commute to teach in Bellingham from Seattle, so I definitely listen to lots of podcasts. I’m pretty new to podcast life! Right now, I really like Into It, Throughline, Code Switch, VS, All My Relations. And I loved The Racist Sandwich when it was still on! And I also want to give a shout-out to Richest Hill, which I listened to while I drove to Butte, Montana. Butte makes a special appearance in the memoir, since the country’s longest-running Chinese American restaurant is there: the Pekin Noodle Parlor. Q What else are you listening to and watching these days? A I have a pretty varied media life. On vinyl, I’m listening right now to Black Belt Eagle Scout’s At My Party with My Brown Friends and The Land, the Water, the Sky. (I just saw them play in Seattle at Neumos!) I also have this great Roberta Flack album, Blue Lights in the Basement. I really love going to Lifelong Thrift in Seattle and finding records there. I’m also listening to Angel Olson’s Big Time, especially the song “This Is How It Works.” There’s this one lyric, “And I’m so tired of saying I’m tired,” that I really feel. I finally got caught up on The White Lotus. I always end up watching viral shows way after everyone else. I’m also loving South Side’s third season. I rewatch The Great Pottery Throw Down often. And I also like watching YouTube videos like Rainbow Plant Life’s channel and Listed’s Tiny Spaces series (I really like watching people cram things into tiny apartments). Q Something I learned about you in the book that left me gobsmacked is that you have as many as eighty houseplants. (I struggle to keep even a single houseplant alive.) Some are more than a decade old. How do you keep so many going, and what do they provide you? A Start with a spider plant or a snake plant! I promise you, it will live! I think the key is placement and watering/misting. Plants are so particular in terms of where they want to thrive; it’s always a game of figuring out how close to the window they should be. I also have learned to water them less over the years; my immediate tendency is to overwater. On Sunday mornings, I have a plant hour where I water and mist the big tropical ones (my favorites being my elephant ear and my bird of paradise). It’s a pretty soothing routine. My dog is very confused by it. He’s like, They’re not even cute like me. They give me so much solace. I love watching them grow new leaves. I also love cutting off the leaves that die, since I know that will help its growth. And I especially love propagation! I’ve given so many friends plant babies from my big pilea...
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