From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trialby Paula YooReviewed by: Katarina Shieh, Aaron Stone, Thao Tran, Han White, & Sandra Yang
(Sources are linked within images)
Book Review:
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry by Paula Yoo tells the story of Vincent Chin, a 27 year old Japanese American who was murdered a week before his wedding. She tells the story of the trials that were held in an attempt to bring justice to not only Vincent but his family as well. The photos she included throughout the book aided in our understanding of the story and helped us form a stronger image in our minds as we read. Yoo also went into great detail on account of every person’s life, even the lives of the men who were standing trial for the murder. Every person, from the doctors who tried to save the young man to the judge who oversaw the trials, were allowed to have their side of the story be told. Because of this, not only throughout the trial but throughout the book as a whole, more evidence is uncovered and the pieces of the story fall into place.
As a group, we have decided that the form and content of this book went nearly perfectly together. It is a difficult topic to cover, but Yoo managed to present it to her readers seemingly unbiased and as accurately as possible. Though the content of the story was graphic and devastating, the language that Yoo used to describe the incidents in great detail allows the reader to stay in the moment she is relating. This acted both with and against the reader in a way. Some of the descriptions were truly disturbingly graphic and were difficult to read at times. While we struggled with reading and picturing these negative things, we agree that it was necessary for us as readers to experience the pain that was experienced.
The storyline jumped several times between different days, and even years. This was a wonderful way to accurately tell every person’s side of the story, but it requires constant understanding of who is being discussed at the current moment. Because of this, several facts had to be restated multiple times in order to bring the reader back to the moment Yoo wished to discuss next. It is because of this that our group has claimed that the form is “nearly perfect” for the story. Although this style of organization makes sense for the story, making it feel as if the book itself was taking place in a courtroom, it did make the storyline difficult to follow in some places. Our group found that the difficulty was attributed to how quickly we read the book. Those of us that read the book in less sittings found the repetitiveness of facts more noticeable than those who read the book slower.
Overall, we agree that it was a great book, even if it was not one that some of us would have chosen for personal reading. The story flowed and despite the struggles previously explained, it was easy to understand and follow.
Author Biography:
(Sources are linked within images)
Paula Yoo was born in America and lived in Korea for a short time. Although her birth date is unknown, she graduated from Yale and Columbia Universities, earning a B.A and a M.S. in journalism. She was a former journalist for The Seattle Times, The Detroit News, and PEOPLE Magazine. Currently, she is an author of 12 Children’s books and Young Adult novels. Some well known books are Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, Good Enough, Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, etc… with her latest one being From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial. She also screen writes for Drama TV; The West Wing, Eureka, Mozart in the Jungle. Some that may be recognized are Supergirl and Pretty Little Liars. She has won many awards such as the 2021 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, a 2021 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, 2022 Children’s Literature Council of Southern California’s Peggy Miller Award for Young Adult Literature. When she is not writing a book, she is a professional violinist who does orchestras and has toured around with pop bands and loves hanging out with her family and cats.
Instructional Activity:
California Common Core Standards:
Grade Level: 9-10
Content Area: English Language Arts
Reading Standards for Informational Text
RI. 9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
Writing Standards:
W. 9-10.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W. 9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically
W .9-10.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Speaking and Listening Standards:
SL. 9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Description of Activity:
Throughout the novel journalism and reporting is significant as it is important to inform the public about this incident. This assignment works best when the class is done reading the entire book. At the beginning of class, students will gather in groups of 4-5 and briefly discuss their general thoughts after finishing the novel. Prompted discussion questions can be provided, such as the ones listed below:
What did you know about the Vincent Chin case prior to reading the book?
What emotions did you experience learning about the initial events of the case?
What does the Vincent Chin case reveal to you about civil rights history in the US?
What, might cultivate implicit bias toward Asian Americans? How do we eliminate this bias in ourselves or others?
After student group discussions, each student will be assigned to write a “newspaper article” about an issue they would like to discuss involving the school or an issue that the students notice around them and would like to raise awareness. This assignment will prepare students to write and research about the issue and form a public argument on the subject. Students should be encouraged to interview on how others think about the issue and investigate the background. Research tools should be provided, class time can be used to prepare students on the tools and the format that is required for this assignment. The book can also be used as a resource and guideline as to see how non-fiction and journalism pieces are written.
Resources and Preparation:
US National Archives “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry” Interview
This is a half-hour monologue and summary of the Vincent Chin case and book, primarily led by Paula Yoo, the author of From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement, and provides some clarity on elements touched on or omitted in the book, specifically the background of the second Judge in the first Civil Rights Trial arriving to the court house, along with post-book-release developments on COVID-19’s impact on Chinese American discrimination and Vincent Chin’s shadow over it. This resource provides clarity around the events of the book in a slimmed-down fashion, some notable insight into why Paula Yoo found herself writing the book and how she sees Vincent Chin’s impact and lack thereof on the Asian American community, and gives students a general resource to understand the case from the author’s perspective beyond the afterword in the text along with how the US government has both empowered and hindered Asian American hate both legally and through political maneuvering.
US National Archives Calendar Website on “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry” Interview
This is the government website for the National Archives and more specifically the calendar event for when they would stream the above segment on their official YouTube channel. It contains a brief synopsis and a link to the now unlisted live stream which, despite having worse overall audio quality, does still contain the Live Chat Replay with people's comments not so much pertaining to the book itself but the discussion around social justice which could be used to as a source of in-class discussion with a few different viewpoints provoking it, some nuanced and some just a singular comment.
This is the original unlisted live stream of the first video with the main reason for this being here despite the noticeably worse audio quality being because of the YouTube stream comments showcasing how some people received this book being acknowledged by the US National Archives. I’m not counting it as part of the 8-10 sources since it is a repeat of the first source but the slight insight gained by the people typing can be valuable for further discussion.
Glendale Library " From A Whisper to a Rallying Cry" - Author Talk with Paula Yoo
This is an interview directly with Paula Yoo (and Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn) by the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission/SoCal Library Cooperative discussing the impact of her book on the community and how it gives voice to the Asian American/Pacific Islander community. It goes into more about Jared’s involvement from the first couple of resources and how his subplot influences the plot's development, provides much greater insight into Asian American and Detroit African American/Black Panther solidarity during the Civil Rights era, and more insight into the personal interview process in a way that helps teach non-fiction writers interested in social advocacy or research topics like this and the kind of work that goes into bringing these stories to life.
Boulder Public Library Paula Yoo Author Talk and Teen-led Panel
This is an interview between Paula Yoo and members of the Boulder Public Library to discuss her book in length with people Paula is familiar with and unfamiliar with, showcasing a lot of her physical evidence used for the book and breaking down the writing process into chunks along with more insight into select images from the book showing major events and areas relating to the case. This interview, in this case, the segments between 39:30 and 1:02:27, can provide clarity for students who may have had questions about the book that Paula can answer like why this was written/if this was appropriate for a teenage audience, clarification on intersectionality and humanization of certain people, what the author hopes this book can do in the fight against racism, Judge Koffman’s potential bias, and what Paula hope’s the takeaway from the book is for readers.
Norton Library Marketing From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, Author Interview, 10/7/20
A brief interview between Norton Library Marketing’s Simon Boughton and, around 11:24, discusses an off-the-record interview with Ronald Ebans she had while writing the book and her reaction to it. While she does not go into any real detail about the interview she does describe its effect on her after the interview, how it helped shape her influences and thoughts on Ronald Ebans, and may help readers understand better some of the emotional nuances they can feel about Ronald Ebens after reading and how they may even be shared by the writer.
3:55-12:18 details both why Paula Yoo approached the way she wrote the book and the people’s backstories in a way to capture the emotions of each individual but also the nuances that are often lost in the discussion of racism and the very complicated nature of it beyond good vs evil. 13:19-15:57 details why Paula keeps her voice on each matter out of the book until her afterword at the end and how she wanted to make the readers the jury as they read. Both of these can provide useful ways that the class can glean different approaches to how the book was written and discuss whether the stance Paula used to write the book was the best for the story and how that can affect their writing in the future.
OCA National Live Stream: AAPI Hate Crimes in History: They're Not New
This is an interview with Roland Hwang and James Shimoura, both of whom played pivotal roles in the story of Vincent Chin and within this book, and they provide some legal clarity both in how the justice system worked back then but also the process of getting the Vincent Chin trials to address systemic issues in sentencing and prosecution for minority based crimes. This is a useful resource for readers and the teaching environment if this book is used in a more legal environment or if the discussion requires a greater context of legal clarity for why the lawyers had to take the approach they did or why certain rulings turned out the way they did and what is going on today on the legal front to combat racial injustice.
This website details how the Michigan Bar recognized the 34th Anniversary of the Vincent Chin case (years before the book was written/in the process of being written) and pictures of the physical plaques made to recognize both the injustice of the case but also the justice changes that came from it. On it is also a link to a two-page PDF discussing the Vincent Chin case that can be used as a helpful handout for students to help keep track of key events within the case and its impact on the Michigan Bar.
https://www.michbar.org/file/barjournal/article/documents/pdf4article1505.pdf
This is the pdf handout link for quick access, not a source. Usable for the reasons stated above, it's a simple and condensed handout of the case.
ABC 7 WXYZ-TV Detroit on Vincent Chin 40 years later and COVID-19 AAPI hate
This is a news segment by ABC Channel 7 WXYZ-TV Detroit News which is providing further expansion on the topic of Asian American hate 40 years after Vincent Chin’s murder (uploaded on June 15, 2022, but the actual 40-year anniversary was on June 23, 2022.) and in the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic. While the book discusses the overall events up to late 2020/early 2021, this provides an interview with an Asian American business owner harassed by these issues and more up-to-date figures of this kind of harassment which gives greater context to students about current hate but also ways Vincent is being remembered in the modern era and outside of this book and can help students better understand the long-lasting effects of the case in a more personal and immediate way.
“Who Killed Vincent Chin?” 1989 Documentary
This is one of the original documentaries based on the Vincent Chin case to spread greater awareness to the general public on what happened to Vincent Chin along with the trials and feelings about it at the time. It is available to watch through the Pollak Library through the database and physically (VHS and DVD) and, if you are/will subscribe to PBS Passport, it can be streamed from the PBS app/website. This can be used in the classroom environment to help show major elements of this book, specifically from 1:14:00-1:19:50 to the end of the film (roughly 6 minutes) involving two impactful moments from the book with Micheal Nitz being interviewed after the final civil rights trial and with Lily Chin’s profound “I want Justice” statement, to better feel the impact that this trial had on both sides of the case and make the descriptions within come to life.
