TENDER HEARTS
“WHERE ARE ALL THE YOUNG adult Asian American Buddhists, and what can we learn from them?” asks Chenxing Han in Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists (North Atlantic Books). In search of an answer, Han interviewed eighty-nine people from this demographic, exploring their cultural and religious backgrounds; their beliefs, practices, and communities; and their thoughts about how they have been represented. “In sharing their stories,” writes Han, “they advocate for solidarity between Asian American Buddhists of different ethnicities—and indeed among Buddhists of all cultural backgrounds.”
Each section of Han’s groundbreaking volume traces the history of important Asian American Buddhists’ contributions in the West—from the initial trailblazers, to the bridge-builders, to the integrators, to the
