We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

Author: Simu Liu

T/CW: some strong language and familial abuse

I’ve been looking forward to reading We Were Dreamers for quite some time. While I haven’t seen the popular comedy show that Simu was in, Kim’s Convenience, I watched the Shang-Chi movie and really loved it (it’s one of my favorites and one of the best Marvel movies hands down). I ended up becoming a huge fan of Simu and following him on social media after seeing the movie and thus finding out about this book coming out several months later! Now onto the book review! Overall, this is a really good memoir and even though it’s pretty short you probably want to take several days to read it to digest all of the information. The book covers Simu’s life from when he was a little boy living in China with his grandparents (his parents immigrated to Canada right after Simu was born and left him in his grandparents’ care until Simu was four) to up to the moment where Simu auditions as Shang-Chi many years later. But the novel doesn’t just tell Simu’s story, it also tells the stories of his parents’ childhoods and what life was like for them back in a very big part of China’s history. I found these parts of the book very interesting and really enjoyed reading them and, just like Simu said, I’d recommend not skipping them (you have to read the book to know what I mean). I also loved the many pop culture references Simu made in the book; despite seeing some reviews complaining about these references, I actually quite enjoyed them and understood most of them (minus the sports ones)! However, despite the many sweet and funny moments in this book, there are also some sad and dark moments too. Simu talks a lot about the familial abuse he experienced when he was a kid and basically grew up hating and resenting his parents; and he talks about how their abuse shaped his life later on as well. Simu eventually had a heart-to-heart talk and made up with his parents but the abuse parts will still be hard to read about. Simu talks too about how while following his acting dreams was worth it eventually but it took a lot of hardship to get there. Overall, though, the most sobering part of the book is where Simu talks about the racism/xenophobia that he and other Asian immigrants experienced/experience still, which has unfortunately gotten worse. I personally hate that certain people were ever allowed to treat Asian people the way that they did and, after reading this, I feel more than ever that certain things need to change. Overall, We Were Dreamers is a funny, inspiring, sad, and eye-opening read all at the same time.