Brilliantly written about the biases people bring to ordinary life. Sheds new light on the subject.

The history of Asian-America can be so directly paralleled with its dramatic literature, and not just in an "art-reflects-life" sort of way. From the early efforts in the 1970s, particularly from the Aieeeee! folks and Frank Chin, to the crossover work of David Henry Hwang and the more "arthouse" performances of Ping Chong and his contemporaries, its exciting to note that a lot of Asian-American contemporary history finds its roots in the work of Asian-America onstage - while you might assume that the theater would reflect the goings-on of what happens within our communities, instead it seems the opposite is often true, and Asian-American life has and continues to be heavily inspired by the work of its dramatic artists.

While the same can perhaps be said about much of Asian-America's fiction and non-fiction literature (including Tan, Kingston, etc.), those worlds have, for whatever reason, not exhibited the same type of diversity that we find in the mode, artistic vision and perspective of our playwrights. In this volume, it is perhaps just as exciting to see the variation of expression from one play to the next, as it is to experience the plays themselves.

Part of this comes from the fact that, as an anthology of Asian-American literature, it falls somewhat short. For example, "Bondage", the offering from Tony-winner David Henry Hwang, is an awful and overly literal little play that falls so below the quality level of his most enduring works that you can't help be aware that it's inclusion is based solely on his name.

That said, there are several exciting plays here, and though a few of the works utilize similar theatrical techniques (direct address to the audience, and "chorus"-type entities, are suspiciously common), there is a marked diversity within its contents. There are engaging issue-plays, like Elizabeth Wong's "Kimchee and Chitlins", some more lyrical pieces, some loud and some quiet. The true gem is Sung Rno's haunting and subtle "Cleveland Raining", which smacks you in the face with its graceful beauty and quiet intensity.

The relief is that most of these plays don't succumb to the pressure (as does much of Asian-American fiction and non-fiction literature) to try and represent ALL Asian-Americans at once - it is in the specific that a people are expressed, and as the drama in this anthology gets more and more specific, we see how many voices we really have.

BUT STILL, LIKE AIR, I'LL RISE is from cover to cover an angle on America Theatre often left alone by most of the mainstream, except during ethnic appreciation month, or whatever. So, yes it is very refreshing to have an anotholgy so compact. It's like a treasure for your library of great Asian America plays.

However, the content of the plays is not G, PG, or PG13 on average. Some of the plays are dirty for the sake of being dirty. I don't think that is a reason to not buy BUT STILL, LIKE AIR, I'LL RISE, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the warning.

i was taking an acting class and we were required to prepare 3-4 scenes. we were encouraged to seek out classics as well as ethnic plays/playwrites, which is how i happed upon BUT STILL, LIKE AIR, I'LL RISE. and man, there is good stuff in here. inevitably the playwrites address cultural issues, via idividual characters' lives, but everyone, regardless of race or roots, should be able to appreciate the masterful writing, the universal themes, and the imipressively wide range of plots. even though i'm not a serious actor, i couldn't NOT buy this book.