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No, this is not a put down to great leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, but it is a question I've been burning to ask since I was an Asian kid growing up in a White Jewish family... and probably further fueled by going to my country of birth.
Is our fiction helping to bolster stereotypes?
For example. I looked up Korea on Goodreads and I was like, WTH... we have authors in Korea writing about more diverse subject matter than this! Why isn't it being imported?
Korea's stories were either native-imported all sad and based on the Korean war, aftermath of it or just down right sad (what Koreans would term makjang). There was two books about anything before the Korean war, one was written by a white person who by the review reports from fellow Koreans didn't know what she was doing. Then there were the immigration stories. Then the rest were on adoption stuff. *sighs*
This has been my curse in racism since I was a little kid. (Do you know about the Korean war? Oh your country is so sad... *sighs*) I've always hoped for myself that I would have stories a bit closer to Linda Sue Park (Who is on Goodreads) where the issue wasn't sadness and war. (But she's YA. What? Adults can't handle foreign countries that break stereotype?)
OK... So I'm thinking, they didn't import stories like Moon Embracing the Sun, or Coffee Prince or any of those other novels I am not quite fluent enough to read, but manhwa (again, is fine). (Cartoons for the kiddies! Yay. <-- sarcasm)
Right... so in Korea they auto-import English-based books and movies, but the US doesn't do the same courtesy for other countries.
Cue Japan... So I'm thinking... maybe I'm just striking out. Maybe if I look at other countries I'll get a better picture.
As much as I like Natsume and classic authors, and I feel lukewarm towards 1Q84... I can't help but feel like the same kind of thing is happening to poor Japan. It's either Science Fiction/Fantasy from Japan or samurai, or ninjas or geisha. I don't begrudge fiction being about, say the Japanese war or Japanese Occupation or even the Japanese concentration camps in the US... but I thought the US was smart enough to also import, you know, the other stuff. The stuff that's about every day Japanese living. Instead, I feel like I have to bend over backwards to put in the effort.
Again, India. One book set before the Mughal Empire. (Makes me very, very sad.) NO books in India about the Kushan Empire. TT (I am screaming over here... What about the other Empires?)
I do give great kudos to the African American authors that managed to break stereotypes about African American life and culture being all about slavery... looking at the other places/cultures as I sorted through good reads, I realized how friggin' hard that must have been. (Again, not begrudging those books, but looking at the diversity within the selection set.)
But I can't help feel from my end that perhaps we have a real weakness. (Or is it that the people on Goodreads are mostly White and that's what's being added or is it that amazon celebrates that too?) Is it that publishers are dismissing books that don't fit the white cultural narrative, or is it that the internalization of racism is so great that breaking from that cultural narrative when writing about our own cultures becomes so hard? How much do publishers and people create the market which in turn creates itself by pigeon holing that market (i.e. self perpetuating)? And I'll ask, too, why not import books from foreign countries in addition to the usual fare that don't fit that cultural narrative?
I'd really love to read something like Coffee Prince in English. Which has none of the features of war... *with* the cultural narrative of the Japanese occupation from a Korean POV. I'd love to read about contemporary Japanese doing every day things that would strike the average reader as "Just like us." *along* with the crazy meka and alternate realities.
I have to ask, why can't I find those books without the use of fan translators?
I also kinda feel alone... since from my research apparently I'm the only person who is aiming to write an adult book set in Three Kingdoms Korea. Makes me cry. When I was a kid, I thought my fellow Koreans would write and publishers would import the books. (I've been waiting for such books to be imported for over 20 years here. I guess that was a delusional dream) When there were none, I thought, dammit, they need to be written. I have to write them (but I want to write other things too). I also want to write about contemporary Koreans living in Korea without white people showing up without it being all sad and about the Korean war, but I seriously hesitate given the state of affairs.
(I'd write about Jews, but there was more success there than the Korean side... though I do have a few gripes about that too)
When it comes to PoCs, is it true that story comes first, or does it matter if it fits the cultural narrative of what the culture "should" be?
Oh and this partially comes because I'm depressed about the first review on Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon on Goodreads. Makes me go WTF... also the white washing on the cover and the "reissue" of the first book, Silver Phoenix to make sure the lovely Chinese person in Han-style clothes gets cut out. (Also makes me go WTF--The book is set in China! If people are going to be offended... they are going to be offended on page one. *rant* *rant*) BTW, she's on AW... so if she sees this... umm... hi...
Is our fiction helping to bolster stereotypes?
For example. I looked up Korea on Goodreads and I was like, WTH... we have authors in Korea writing about more diverse subject matter than this! Why isn't it being imported?
Korea's stories were either native-imported all sad and based on the Korean war, aftermath of it or just down right sad (what Koreans would term makjang). There was two books about anything before the Korean war, one was written by a white person who by the review reports from fellow Koreans didn't know what she was doing. Then there were the immigration stories. Then the rest were on adoption stuff. *sighs*
This has been my curse in racism since I was a little kid. (Do you know about the Korean war? Oh your country is so sad... *sighs*) I've always hoped for myself that I would have stories a bit closer to Linda Sue Park (Who is on Goodreads) where the issue wasn't sadness and war. (But she's YA. What? Adults can't handle foreign countries that break stereotype?)
OK... So I'm thinking, they didn't import stories like Moon Embracing the Sun, or Coffee Prince or any of those other novels I am not quite fluent enough to read, but manhwa (again, is fine). (Cartoons for the kiddies! Yay. <-- sarcasm)
Right... so in Korea they auto-import English-based books and movies, but the US doesn't do the same courtesy for other countries.
Cue Japan... So I'm thinking... maybe I'm just striking out. Maybe if I look at other countries I'll get a better picture.
As much as I like Natsume and classic authors, and I feel lukewarm towards 1Q84... I can't help but feel like the same kind of thing is happening to poor Japan. It's either Science Fiction/Fantasy from Japan or samurai, or ninjas or geisha. I don't begrudge fiction being about, say the Japanese war or Japanese Occupation or even the Japanese concentration camps in the US... but I thought the US was smart enough to also import, you know, the other stuff. The stuff that's about every day Japanese living. Instead, I feel like I have to bend over backwards to put in the effort.
Again, India. One book set before the Mughal Empire. (Makes me very, very sad.) NO books in India about the Kushan Empire. TT (I am screaming over here... What about the other Empires?)
I do give great kudos to the African American authors that managed to break stereotypes about African American life and culture being all about slavery... looking at the other places/cultures as I sorted through good reads, I realized how friggin' hard that must have been. (Again, not begrudging those books, but looking at the diversity within the selection set.)
But I can't help feel from my end that perhaps we have a real weakness. (Or is it that the people on Goodreads are mostly White and that's what's being added or is it that amazon celebrates that too?) Is it that publishers are dismissing books that don't fit the white cultural narrative, or is it that the internalization of racism is so great that breaking from that cultural narrative when writing about our own cultures becomes so hard? How much do publishers and people create the market which in turn creates itself by pigeon holing that market (i.e. self perpetuating)? And I'll ask, too, why not import books from foreign countries in addition to the usual fare that don't fit that cultural narrative?
I'd really love to read something like Coffee Prince in English. Which has none of the features of war... *with* the cultural narrative of the Japanese occupation from a Korean POV. I'd love to read about contemporary Japanese doing every day things that would strike the average reader as "Just like us." *along* with the crazy meka and alternate realities.
I have to ask, why can't I find those books without the use of fan translators?
I also kinda feel alone... since from my research apparently I'm the only person who is aiming to write an adult book set in Three Kingdoms Korea. Makes me cry. When I was a kid, I thought my fellow Koreans would write and publishers would import the books. (I've been waiting for such books to be imported for over 20 years here. I guess that was a delusional dream) When there were none, I thought, dammit, they need to be written. I have to write them (but I want to write other things too). I also want to write about contemporary Koreans living in Korea without white people showing up without it being all sad and about the Korean war, but I seriously hesitate given the state of affairs.
(I'd write about Jews, but there was more success there than the Korean side... though I do have a few gripes about that too)
When it comes to PoCs, is it true that story comes first, or does it matter if it fits the cultural narrative of what the culture "should" be?
Oh and this partially comes because I'm depressed about the first review on Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon on Goodreads. Makes me go WTF... also the white washing on the cover and the "reissue" of the first book, Silver Phoenix to make sure the lovely Chinese person in Han-style clothes gets cut out. (Also makes me go WTF--The book is set in China! If people are going to be offended... they are going to be offended on page one. *rant* *rant*) BTW, she's on AW... so if she sees this... umm... hi...
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