Review | A ‘disabled person in a non-disabled world’, Alice Wong, activist, tells her life story with a mix of rage and humour
- Alice Wong’s Hong Kong immigrant parents were told she would die in childhood, but she survived and has thrived as a determined advocate for her fellow disabled
- In Year of the Tiger – An Activist’s Life, she offers glimpses of her cyborg-like existence, love of cats, coffee and food, and enthusiasm for nerd culture
Ever since her childhood, disabled activist Alice Wong has had an affinity with Star Trek and X-Men, not only because of the superpowers of the cyborgs and mutants who coexisted with humans in those worlds. She has resonated with those and other sci-fi aliens for different reasons.
Like a cyborg, for example, Wong’s body is enmeshed in technology setting her apart from other humans: she relies on a power wheelchair for daily life, as well as a non-invasive ventilator and a spine fused with metal rods and wires.
As for her “superpowers”? Long before “WFH” and “Zoom” became buzz terms, Wong had championed the rights of people with disabilities to work remotely, and participate in civic and political activities online. She tapped into the power of the internet to build online disabled communities, giving voice to a group that has often been undervalued and overlooked.
“For many disabled, sick and immunocompromised people like myself, we have always lived with uncertainty and are skilled in adapting to hostile circumstances in a world that was never designed for us in the first place,” Wong, a self-described “disabled oracle”, writes in Year of the Tiger – An Activist’s Life.
While memoirs by disabled authors are typically tragedy-to-miracle or harrowing-yet-triumphant narratives, Year of the Tiger is anything but. Through a collage of her essays, interviews, photos and commissioned artworks, readers are offered a glimpse into the multifaceted life of one of the most influential disabled activists in the United States.
