Disorientation is a 2022 Satire and Dark Comedy novel by Elaine Hsieh Chou. Through the use of dark comedy, the novel explores the themes of hardships, burnout, racism, xenophobia, cultural appropriation, fetishization, and white supremacy in academia.
Twenty-nine-year-old Taiwanese-American graduate student, Ingrid Yang, has spent the past eight years working on her PhD thesis on Xiao-Wen Chou, a famous Chinese-American poet. Despite not being Chinese herself, Ingrid had been strong-armed by her supervisor to work into analyzing the works of the recently-deceased poet. Falling behind on her deadline to complete her dissertation, she copes with her stress by feeding her antacid addiction.
One day, Ingrid's research takes a sharp turn when she finds a note in the archives pertaining to Chou that leads her down a rabbit hole. Enlisting the help of her best friend, Eunice, the two women embark on a mystery hunt on the uncovering a hidden secret—-one that might reveal that Xiao-Wen Chou might not have been what he claimed to have been. Revelation of this dirty secret sends the East Asian Studies department, and the entire university, into utter chaos, which hastily leads to conversations about racism and cultural appropriation on campus.
With the breakthrough Ingrid had just caused, she slowly starts to question her identity as an Asian-American woman in a predominantly white institution, and what her presence means to the white men who she interacts with in her everyday life.
Novel contains examples of:
- Becoming the Mask: After spending time with the POC Caucaus that she'd infiltrated, Ingrid begins to espouse their views on white supremacy, and how it affects her as an Asian woman. She doesn't go for their more extremist views, though.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ingrid has resigned as a PhD student following the scandal, making her eight years of work moot, and ends up in a fast-food place to make ends meet. Despite having collected tangible evidence of Michael having collaborated with John to turn the latter into a Chinese man, he is acquitted of all charges and allowed to resume his duties as dean. On the bright side, Ingrid has still exposed Michael as an on-campus white supremacist, which will make him very unpopular with the student body. She is also free of her manipulative ex-fiance, who had long since fetishized her for being Asian, and reunites with her parents. She also mends her friendship with Eunice.
- Blackface: The ending has John bumps into Ingrid at work while in brown skin and an afro, indicating he has now moved on to this.
- But Not Too Black: Zoe, Vivian's girlfriend, reveals that her father is white. While not explicitly stated, it's implied that her own extremist views (namely happily allowing Ingrid to hold a "I hate white people" sign) are her overcompensating for the fact that she is half-white.
- Colorism: In her faux-apology to Ingrid, Vivian admits to viewing light-skinned Asians as "the white people of POC". Ingrid later admits to herself that though light-skinned people of color do not face the overt racism that their darker-skinned counterparts do, they are still discriminated against nonetheless.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Nearly every white character is guilty of not telling different East Asian cultures apart. Ingrid is repeatedly mistaken for Chinese (she's Taiwanese) by Stephen and Michael. In her undergrad years, she was frequently mistaken for Eunice (who's Korean), even though they look nothing alike.
- Not Quite Dead: Xiao-Wen Chou. That's because he never existed, with the "Chinese-American" man actually being a white man in disguise.
- Plays Great Ethnics: John Smith does this In-Universe, what with donning the skin color, wigs, and eyelid tape to pass as an Asian man, having pulled this off almost flawlessly for thirty-five years. After the great scandal, he shows up to Ingrid's workplace, donning brown skin and a short afro, implying he's now passing off as a Black man.
- The Reveal: John Smith is Xiao-Wen Chou.
- Soapbox Sadie: Vivian exaggerates this regarding her views on white people—-namely that she loathes them to the point of only allowing them to join protests if they volunteer to be killed by police if things go awry. When she and Zoe are first seen starting a discussion board on Xiao-Wen Chou, she forbids the white participants from making statements, and that they will be allowed to speak only when spoken to. Aside from these bits, Vivian does make valid points on how Asians (and other students of color) are exploited for their labor, and the dangers of Asian women being fetishized by white men.
- Yellowface: A textbook example by John Smith, who for thirty-five years wore yellow makeup, a black wig, and eyelid tape to pass as Chinese. He justifies this as taking the opportunity to get his poetry published, which he couldn't do under his ordinary "white" name.
