Last Updated on August 30, 2022 by themigrationnews
Introduction
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story takes us through the life of Simu Liu – a Canadian actor and stuntman who is also now the author of this book. This memoir is honest, inspiring, and relatable as it shows Liu’s origin story of growing up in China, immigrating to Canada, beginning to pursue an acting career, and all the challenging experiences with stereotypes grounded in identity, which ultimately led him to where he is today.
Summary of the Book
It can be said that Liu’s memoir breaks new ground as he emphasizes the immigrant perspective. This distinguishes his memoir from many others, as most celebrity memoirs are usually written for a traditionally western audience, whereas Liu’s is not. In effect, this memoir has strong connections to migration. For instance, it begins with the migration of Liu’s parents from Harbin, China, to Canada for further studies when Liu was only eight months old. Most of Liu’s early life was spent in the care of his grandparents – his yéye and nӑinai. He immigrated to Canada when his father came to pick him up at the age of four. Liu later immigrated from Canada to the United States of America so that he could focus on his career. This shows how migration and the constant movement from one place to another have played a vital role in his life. As a result, Liu’s memoir tells “a story about growing up between cultures, finding your family, and becoming the master of your own extraordinary circumstance.”
Analysis of the Book’s Structure
Liu has arranged the structure of his book through twenty-five chapters that are split into three acts. The first act contains seven chapters that focus on the time from his birth to travelling with his father to Canada at the age of four. Interestingly, chapters two to six introduce readers to the life of Liu’s parents. These chapters dive into their family history and provide meaningful insights into his parents’ upbringing in the midst of natural disasters, the Cultural Revolution, and preparation for various entrance exams so that they could leave their lives in China and begin a new one in Canada so that they could create a better life for their family. Liu included his parents’ story in his memoir, which other authors often exclude, so it was a lovely experience reading and getting into the mind of his parents. He ends this section by meeting his father after four years where he seemed more like a stranger than his own father and then travelling across oceans to finally reunite with his mother and begin their life as a family of three.
The second act contains nine chapters spanning the struggles of living as a family. This was due to the sudden change in family dynamic from his loving grandparents to his hard-working and tiresome parents, which resulted in harsh words and hurtful feelings as they were new to the idea of balancing work and raising a child. These chapters take us through Liu’s childhood years, where he got the best academic achievements and made his parents proud. However, his college years saw him becoming completely disillusioned with what his parents had laid out for him. This section then looks at the beginning of Liu’s career as an accountant and ends with him being laid off at the mere age of twenty-two. This section emphasized how though “related by blood, [Liu and his parents] were separated by culture, language, and values,” which made growing up in Canada hard.
The final act also contains nine chapters, and these chapters delve into the newly acquired acting path that Liu chooses for himself. Liu views him being laid off as a blessing in disguise as it meant that he could pursue what he was truly passionate about as a career. However, Liu refrains from informing his parents about this as he knows that they would be disappointed in him. This section shows how with nothing else left to lose, Liu embarks on a new journey into the world of show business, acting, and all the behind-the-scenes action that happens. However, Liu experiences more rejection and mishaps, but that does not stop him from continuing along this career path. In effect, he finally begins succeeding as an actor and unknowingly starts reconciling with his parents. As a result, this section emphasised the struggles of a new Asian actor during a time when representation and diversity were not given much importance in Hollywood.
Analysis of Methodology
Throughout the process of writing his memoir, Liu collected many photographs and, with the help of his friend Adrian Lee – who is also the editor of this memoir – conducted interviews with his parents and Liu where they spent many painstaking hours talking through their relationship. Liu included various pages of photographs within each act. The chapters are also quite short, which shows how readers could complete the book in one sitting if they wanted to. Interestingly, Liu himself has recorded the audiobook version of his memoir, which can help readers gain more of a personal perspective. These short chapters can be seen as a strength. Another strength of his memoir is how he sheds light on the second-generation Asian American/Canadian experience. This is something that many migrants can relate to. In particular, Liu mentions how mainstream media sparsely covers Asian diasporic life, “but what about the experiences of second-generation kids like us – like feeling ashamed of the lunches our parents packed us because they were too “ethnic”? Or having to translate things for our parents because our English was better than theirs? Or struggling to communicate with our relatives in our home country because our Mandarin/Cantonese/Hindi/Korean/Viet was absolute horseshit?” (p.265). This quote in itself is something that hits home to many. In effect, this shows how all migrants, whether Asian or not, can relate to and find aspects of their lives reflected in Liu’s memoir.
The audience is kept intrigued and hooked throughout the memoir to learn more about the untold aspects of Liu’s life. However, there was a missed opportunity in this memoir as aspects of his reconciliation with his parents were excluded. It also felt like the memoir just ended without going into detail about the true beginning of his acting career. This shows how there is room for a sequel of some sort to be made to continue Liu’s story. A future sequel would enable the audience to gain insight into an Asian perspective of reconciling with parents and family, as these parts are often neglected.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Liu highlights the immigrant struggle, something that all audiences can relate to and even learn from. The memoir, titled ‘We Were Dreamers’, can inspire people to refrain from seeing things as mere dreams and make that dream a reality which is exactly what Liu does. Therefore, it is worth reading.
Himani Chauhan is an International Relations & History graduate and is currently pursuing a Masters of Migration Studies from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). She comes from a family of immigrants which has shaped her experiences, views, and interests in wanting to further explore and work in this area of study. Her area of interest includes – Migration, History and Human Rights.