The Rice Queen Diaries

Part autobiography, part titillating sex novel, part scholarly treatise, "The Rice Queen Diaries: A Memoir" deals with a subject that is obviously very close to the heart of the author: being a gay white male attracted primarily to young-looking Asian men, which is a "rice queen" in gay slang.The writer traces his attraction chronologically, from his early years in a small Canadian town outside Vancouver, which was best known as being the location shoot for low-budget American films. It was also closest to the site of a Japanese internment camp during World War II, which the author found out his uncle had a hand in running. He conjectures that this knowledge may have triggered an early curiousity about Asians, but his own budding sexuality was solely responsible for his attraction to them. After relocating to the larger city of Vancouver, he is able to more openly pursue his interests as a gay man, and becomes involved in one of the "Long Yang" clubs, designed for those attracted to gay Asian men. Having already had many encounters with young men from various East Asian countries, he then becomes the proverbial "kid in a candy store" when he takes an extended vacation in Thailand and Vietnam, where he eventually realizes that the numerous sexual partners he has are the result of economic transactions born of the difference between the cultures of the individuals involved.For those wanting more information than his personal observations, the author includes numerous references to scholarly works on the culture of countries he visits, as well as psychological studies concerning the Interracial atrractions involved. He also makes a realistic assessment of his own behavior in such interactions, and doesn't like what he sees. By the time he is halfway through a later working visit to Thailand, he greatly curtails his sexual encounters, spending more time socializing with other expatriates, which he suggests left him open to find the one individual with whom he is currently partnered.The book was interesting to me, now five years removed from a three year relationship with a slightly younger man from Taiwan. The balance of scholarly analysis and retelling of the author's exploits make it difficult to keep the book as one cohesive work, but the author seems to strike an ideal balance to make the book of interest to readers, regardless of whether you share the type of attraction discussed or perhaps are the subject of it yourself. I'll give it four stars out of five.

An easy read that portrays the life of a Canadian man in this 20's and 30's who loves Asian men. His life in Canada is the experience of most Rice Queens; however, when he chooses to reside in Thailand, he comes to understand the underlying sociatal and cultural factors of Asian men who live Caucasian men. This is not a sexcapade story, rather a phychological gestalt for the author and reader as well.

No one seems to really discuss race ,ethnicity, and inter-racial relationships openly in western gay society or mainstream media, (except when it comes to blaming African Americans for the passing of the anti gay marriage Prop 8 in Nov. 2008)That's why I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued by Daniel Gawthrop's memoir "The Rice Queen Diaries" what I thought would be an interesting look when homosexuality, race, and desire collidePart academic/anthropological study of gay asian men, part travelogue, part red shoe diaries, Gawthrop chronicles his life as the gay, white Wilt Chamberlain with "yellow fever", jumping from asian man to asian man, first in his native Vancouver Canada, then an extended 3 month vacation in Thailand and Vietnam, to eventually "going native" (his words) by living in Thailand for three years.I commend the authors frankness and honesty, and owning up to the "Rice Queen" label. He said Thailand and Vietnam changed him, but where is the proof?

Really Fun read. Great writing, entertaining, funny, touching. The Author takes us through a fine journey.

This is a "diary" with footnotes. Reflections footnoted are thoughts reformed, scrubbed to perfection before being presented. So "The Rice Queen Diaries" offers readers an exploration of sexual attraction and self-discovery, but without the accidental honesty, the fragmentary nature of a true, real-time diary, those messy shards of broken glass that refract instead of reflect, offering abstractions that lure the reader (and more importantly the diarist) closer to the truth than any polished mirror. But the desire here is race-based, a topic as challenging as it is intriguing, one rarely reviewed in gay culture, and when it is, often sanitized through academia. So even if caution is the only approach available, this is still a book of participation. The author's erotic explorations are loaded with subconscious colonial ambition; it's hard not to imagine him, pith helmet atilt, typing away about trysts with young Asian men. But that's only a surface reading -this is a determinedly self-conscious sex-tour. If he does indeed wear that hat it's a purposeful dunce cap. Daniel Gawthrop isn't looking forward, toward the next sweaty escapade, in his book, but backwards, seriously seeking out what ignited this delirious dive, sent him tumbling until, submerged in a jungle-like bathhouse world of active stereotypes, his cute "houseboy" bites the hand that feeds, literally. Nothing ruins a vacation so much as the sight of your own blood.This is a ten-year survey of obsession, from the emerging sexuality of a Vancouver boyhood to full-blown racial cruising in Toronto. As his preference for Asian men takes hold Gawthrop notices that certain automatic boundaries and assumptions apply to relationships between gay Caucasian and gay Asian men. As this psychological arena crystallizes, he has love affairs in and with Thailand; he moves there after his first visit. Though the various sexual sub-and-not-so-sub-cultures of Thailand are relatively well-known, Gawthrop expounds on them with a definitive amount of new insight. Plus his chapter on Vietnam is a marvelous bit of actual reporting -it's unlikely you'll read elsewhere of cruising beneath Communist flags at a swimming pool in Ho Chi Mihn City.Well-turned prose and a breezy attitude toward sex makes this book a quick read, almost too quick; rather matter-of-fact observations deserve closer attention, specifically the fetishistic treatment of his lovers. Too many lithe brown fingers mystically caress, too many rose-petal lips purse throughout that, even if stereotypes are recognized and condemned under the rubric of socio-economic injustice, I can't help but wonder if friendship and love forged with the total recognition of such exploitation might not just be a more canny type of exploitation. Then again, what discussion of race isn't a total minefield? Well this one is a minefield laced with footnotes. And I found them a wee bit defensive, a way to fortify an observation with someone else's authoritative-sounding opinion. Quotes from Asian sources are offered as well, which makes even better mortar. In fact, I think I'll do the same thing. I'd like to amend this review by calling for a second opinion as well. Someone from Thailand, please. Let's hear the voice behind the smile oft described in "The Rice Queen Diaries." It might offer praise, condemnation or added insight. Though who knows, we might just hear one long, frustrated scream.Previously published in Books To Watch Out For, '05

To be honest the start of this book is pretty awful and I echo other reviewers' comments about the apparent vanity of the man: but the author seems to 'grow up' in the course of the book and reflect more and more on his own 'white' and 'presumptive' attitudes in asia. Not only does the narrative improve sharply later but also the writing style becomes entertaining and captivating. The book eventually passed my 'acid test' of being missed like a friend when I had finished it -so the four stars are for the last half not the first half :)