Chinese-American 'Transplants': A Conversation with Daniel Tam-Claiborne

A special feature for AAPI Heritage Month

It is hard to feel at home in a place where you are constantly scrutinized as an outsider and made to feel unwelcome.

Hello Loreates,

Happy Asian American/ Pacific Islander Heritage Month! There is a LOT going on in the world to distract us from this celebration of heritage, but it’s important to remember that the issue of ethnic history lies at the heart of our present reality, as it always has. Who we are, where we belong, and how we find, identify, and claim our rightful place in the world — these questions have always been central to our agency as human beings, and never more so than right now.

For all these reasons, I’m delighted to kick off AAPI Heritage Month in conversation with Daniel Tam-Claiborne, whose debut novel Transplants will be published by Regalo Press on May 13.

No less a master than Lauren Groff calls Transplants “gorgeously written, and profoundly moving.” It’s the tale of a Chinese student and her Chinese-American teacher, who meet at a rural university in China an…