📕 Introducing Model Breakers - Let's Break The Model Minority Together
👋 Greetings from Taipei! I’m Charlene Wang. I make your life a little better with coaching and community. I am the author of Model Breakers. LivingOS Newsletter is my musings on life. Grateful to have you.
In the 2016 United States Presidential election, the Chinese American voting demographic had one of the lowest voter turnouts. This would indicate Chinese Americans don’t organize, or feel disenfranchised around American politics, which supports the model minority myth that Chinese are “naturally” quiet. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are, after all, talking about the same people who organized the Tiananmen Square Protests — one of the most revolutionary movements in recent history.
Granted, Chinese immigrants need a job to survive and a visa to stay. While it is convenient to fit in and follow the rules, it is dangerous to hand our power away. If we don’t think for ourselves, we are subject to the stereotypes that limit us. To liberate us from the false expectations, we need to know who we are, break the model minority, and build networks to change the perceptions at large.
Despite systematic racism, most of the harm is reinforced by the rest of us who have no intention to harm ourselves. We have invested so much into educating our next generations, but we forgot to invest in our community. We are so used to coping with everyday aggressions that we forget that the world doesn’t have to be this way. We are weaponized as a political token, from “Model Minority” to “Chinese Virus.” It is time for all of us, whether we're studying, starting our professional careers, or becoming a role model to start these conversations and tell our own stories.
Model Breakers is living proof.
📕 The Making Of Model Breakers
Traditional publisher loans writers money, provides editing/layout support, and keeps ~85% of the profit. In exchange for the service and distribution, they get the ownership of your book and decide whether your content can be kept. Frankly, this term is not very favorable to creators…
Thanks to Taylor Swift’s movement on giving creators the ownership they deserve, the publishing industry has changed. In addition to traditional publishing, there is hybrid publishing which empowers me to write the book I want to write, stay true to my audience, and own it into the future.
Part of maintaining that ownership and serving that community requires an upfront investment. And that is where crowdsourcing comes in. The basic publishing cost is $5,000. From there, we will march towards the $8,000 goal for audiobooks. Once we hit the $8,000 goal, everyone will receive a complimentary audiobook too 🎧
Crowdsourcing is a powerful way to democratize the making of this book. To me, this book is not a publisher's or my story. It’s ours, and I want us to own it.
When you pre-order the book, you’ll be joining a community that will help shape what comes in and out of the book. You’ll be investing in breaking the model minority stereotypes and rewriting a more empowering social narrative.
If you’re excited about bringing social change to the world, I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering a copy of Model Breakers. Pre-orders help bookstores decide whether or not to carry my book and help my publisher calculate how many copies to print. It’s also a way to signal that you believe in me (which helps me write more books in the future.) ☺️
💪🏻 Let’s Break The Models Together
After you pre-order a copy of Model Breakers, hit reply to get these exclusive gifts:
The Introduction to the book in Google Doc. I’d love to hear your feedback.
A list of books, interviews, and podcasts I consume while writing this one.
An invitation to the virtual book tour event I will be hosting with my podcast partner Elaine.
These gifts will only be available to people who place a pre-order this month.
Warmly,
Charlene
PS - If you live in the US or Taiwan, you can get free shipping with this special link 🤩