Stay True arrived at a time when xenophobia, racism, and violence against Asian Americans were on the rise (Health Affairs). The Chinese origins of COVID-19 led some Americans to blame Asians as a group for the pandemic, and instances of hate crimes against Asian Americans were widely reported in the news from 2020 onward. Some activists claimed that political rhetoric in the early stages of the pandemic inflamed anti-Asian sentiments—notably, President Donald J. Trump’s use of the slurs “Chinese virus” and “kung flu”—while data show that Trump’s “Chinese virus” tweet led to a rise in anti-Asian hashtags on Twitter (UCSF).

The memoir tells of Hsu’s college friend, Ken, who died at the hands of carjackers in 1999. The memoir discusses the possibility that the murder was a hate crime, but ultimately rejects it. In interviews published after the book’s release, Hsu has expressed mild dismay at the desire to turn Ken’s death into a symbol of something that it wasn’t for him. Stay True is primarily a coming-of-age story about an intimate friendship, the loss of that friendship, and the emotional aftermath of that loss.