| American Knees | |
| Author: | Shawn Wong |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | University of Washington Press |
| Release Date: | 1995 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages: | 240 pp |
| Isbn: | 978-0-295-98496-4 |
| Dewey: | 813/.54 22 |
| Congress: | PS3573.O583 A8 2005 |
| Oclc: | 57342291 |
American Knees is a novel written by Shawn Wong, first published in 1995 by Simon & Schuster, and later republished by the University of Washington Press in 2005. Conceived as a cultural response to Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club, Wong's book depicts the love life of an East Asian American man with three women.
The novel chronicles romantic chapters in the life of Raymond Ding, a Chinese American university administrator who first marries and divorces a Chinese American woman, then dates and breaks up with a hapa (biracial) younger woman, and later gets involved with a Vietnamese American co-worker who is haunted by memories of the Vietnam War.
A film adaptation, called Americanese (2006), was written and directed by Eric Byler, produced by Lisa Onodera, and stars Chris Tashima as Raymond Ding. The film was acquired by IFC Films.