What are your thoughts on writing a world and characters inspired by a race you don't represent?

Have a look at Lian Hearn's books - I think it's called The Otori Saga, or Cycle or something. The first book is 'Heaven's Net is Wide'. (seems to be exactly what you're talking about)

Maybe you're familiar with those, but there are also YA fantasy books set in Japan or a Japan-inspired country, for example David Kudler's Seasons of the Sword (I've read Risuko, the first in the series, and it was okay), or Jay Kristoff's The Lotus Wars (these did get some flak for a sloppy treatment of Japanese culture, though). Both authors are white men.

Write what you like, give it your best, be prepared to take responsibility for it, and you'll be fine

Out of curiosity, what race are the characters?

ReadWriteRachel said:

They would all be members of the fantasy Japan-inspired world, so their race would be made up (citizens of a royal city in Nayoko, which is my fictional country) but would be paralleled to Japanese. Not strictly Japanese in name, but definitely influenced and inspired by East Asian culture, Japan in particular.

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Bolding mine.

I think you can write what you want, and I sure can't say how well you'll handle this situation. But the name of your city is clearly meant to evoke Japan in the mind of the reader, so "not strictly Japanese in name" seems maybe a bit disingenuous.

In your shoes I'd consider looking for a sensitivity reader, and listening closely to their feedback. As an Old White Lady, I can tell you that no matter how much I learn or study a non-Caucasian culture, I'm going to have blind spots I'm not going to recognize until someone with practical experience points them out to me.

The danger, I think, of writing about a culture you haven't lived in is gravitating toward stereotypes (positive or negative), and often simplifying or over-romanticizing reality. Not saying this is what you'll do - but I'd absolutely get an outside opinion on the MS.

To add to the TBR pile, I would suggest Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. For many reasons, but primarily because it does a good job depicting an authentically Asian-inspired setting that's unique and diverse enough to pass the my personal litmus test.

Otherwise, same attitude as everyone else here. Research, try to avoid easy assumptions and the seeming of a monoculture, and take responsibility/be willing to make adjustments. Sounds exciting!

ReadWriteRachel said:

They would all be members of the fantasy Japan-inspired world, so their race would be made up (citizens of a royal city in Nayoko, which is my fictional country) but would be paralleled to Japanese. Not strictly Japanese in name, but definitely influenced and inspired by East Asian culture, Japan in particular.

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I kept meaning to come back to this thread but didn't have a chance last week.

I am not Japanese, but part East Asian (Chinese), and this whole thing makes me a little uncomfortable, but I wouldn't tell you not to do it. There's a history of white people fetishizing East Asian cultures (especially Japanese, in my experience), being supposedly interested in the culture...but not caring about the people at all--and I think this in particular is where accusations of cultural appropriation come in. Which is why I asked about the race of the characters, because white characters with Japanese-like culture would set off massive warning bells for me. Also, frequently books written with a "white gaze" better fit people's preconceived ideas of what Asian cultures are like and may be more likely to be published...though I think this is less of an issue now and there are many YA spec fic books written by POC. However, there is still an uncomfortable history here for those of us who aren't white. Anyway, I'm not sure what advice to give, just saying that I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole thing and I'm not sure you are the best person to write the book, but I'm not going to tell you no. (btw, the reviews I've seen of Jay Kristoff's Lotus Wars series make me never want to read the books. The handling of the culture does not sound great.)

ReadWriteRachel said:

Is this too much? What is your opinion on non-minorities writing characters who are inspired by a minority race and culture? I would love to hear from authors from all walks of life and backgrounds, if possible.

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Hello! White British here. I think that you might already know that I'm not the person to say whether this is something that should be done or not. It's not my place. But I would suggest that you be careful, and if you're not already aware of some of the relevant YA twitter storms that have occurred in the recent past, perhaps look into it a little.

Starting points:
https://www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html
https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/ya-twitter-forces-rising-star-author-to-self-cancel.html

I, personally, suspect that you could be very careful, and write the story with the best of intentions and care, and something--however large, however small--would still slip through the net of sensitivity readers and self-policing. So I think it's a good idea to know what the worst case scenario has the potential to be--in terms of how the story may be received; the scrutiny it might come under--and make an informed decision about whether that's something you're willing to risk.

Speaking for myself (I'm Asian), I do not mind if said story was written by a non-Asian. I can't have enough stories set in Asia.

Buuuuut! My bullshit radar would be on high alert, especially if the author isn't Asian. Because there's such a long history of non-PoC writers taking inspiration from other cultures and then Othering them, either by fetishizing or over-simplifying or stereotyping and so on. My tolerance would be a lot lower. The slightest hint of Othering, and that book will hit the wall.

So that's my own personal opinion.

Objectively speaking though, I don't think you should do it if you want to get it trade published. The current YA market is such that agents and publishers are loathe to take risks on white authors writing about a PoC culture as their debut, precisely because so many of them have mangled the cultures and then received criticism for it (as they should). Getting published is a hard enough journey, why make it harder on yourself?

There is an issue with writing about Asia in particular due to the long history of Orientalism surrounding it in Europe/the US. It might be worth having a read of some articles on Orientalism (there's a good book by Edward Said too) just so you can get a feel for the things to avoid when writing about an Asian culture. Japan in particular was often reduced to an aesthetic (and actually still is), which missed the complexities of the society and cultures within the country (and there are multiple cultures).

If you're writing a made-up culture, it might be better to just make it all up, rather than base it strongly on Japanese culture, but with a different name. Personally, I'd be inclined to say either make it up entirely or make it very accurate to Japan, otherwise it can feel like cherry-picking. That's just my opinion though.

ReadWriteRachel said:

What is your opinion on non-minorities writing characters who are inspired by a minority race and culture? I would love to hear from authors from all walks of life and backgrounds, if possible.

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Guy Gavriel Kay (white Canadian writer) has done this quite successfully in Under Heaven and River of Stars, both harking to ancient China. And most of his other novels have earth-like societies and points in history as a setting.

Alma Alexander's Secrets of the Jin-shei similarly borrows elements from old China. Alma Alexander was born in Serbia.

Lian Hearn, an Englishwoman, writes beautiful fantasies (The Tales of the Otori) set in a Japan-like world.

Daniel Fox (a pseudonym; he has at least one other) is an Englishman who spent time in Taiwan and wrote a wonderful fantasy trilogy set in an Asian society. (Dragon in Chains, et al).

I could go on. The point is, there's no rule that says you have to be a member of a particular culture or race in order to write about it. You can write whatever you want to write, though you do have a responsibility to not fall back on stereotypical and cliched depictions. The advantage of setting the story in a secondary, imaginary world, is that you can borrow elements that fit but also create your own elements. Research what needs researching; the rest is pure invention.

ReadWriteRachel said:

Is this too much? What is your opinion on non-minorities writing characters who are inspired by a minority race and culture? I would love to hear from authors from all walks of life and backgrounds, if possible.

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Hi Rachel. Nice to meet you.

I'm a strong believer in reading and writing whatever you want. If you write with passion, honesty, and truth, then it'll be your own voice, no matter what you're writing about.

I'm also writing an Asian inspired fantasy novel (not YA but a spiritual fantasy/lit fic/ or whatever you want to call it), and a quick glance at me will tell you that I'm not the least bit Asian looking. My novel is mostly inspired by Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, and Balinese cultures, because I've lived in those areas and I have a passion for the people who live there.

I'm an American, married to a Chinese woman, and have a Chinese daughter and half Chinese son, who is also part Zhuang (the largest ethnic minority in China). Sometimes Mrs. Panda and my kids often joke that I'm more Chinese than they are, but that's not true of course.

As a geographer I'd urge you to dig deeper, much deeper into Japan and go beyond the superficial aspects of culture like Samurai warriors and pearl divers. There's nothing wrong with those at all, by all means write what interests you, but you should be aware that Pearl divers, just like geishas, are some of what Putputt mentioned, highly fetishized by foreign men, as well as Japanese men.

My advice is to seek out your passion and write, write, write. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you wish.

It's tricky to write about a culture not our own. But we can do it well if we do a lot of research and spend much time imagining that culture, putting our innermost selves inside that culture. At our cores most of us have the same needs and desires. If we are true to that, most of our mistakes will be forgiven.

If we're writing about an imaginary culture we have more freedom, but the need to express universal truths is the same.

My opinion is that you are creating a fantasy world. It may be inspired by a particular culture, but it does not have to be EXACTLY like that particular culture. You're not trying to re-create exactly what it was like in ancient Japan, but a lot of the world-building will have similarities. Yes, you definitely need to do some good research and be respectful to the culture, but at the same time, you can make it your own. Will there be people that get offended by it no matter how respectful you are? Probably. Will there be people that enjoy your book, even if it's not 100% accurate to the real history? Probably. There will also probably be people that claim you white-washed it and there will probably be others that feel it is an interesting take on the culture. Basically, you'll probably get all sorts of opinions, but that doesn't matter.

Write what YOU want to write. Make it the best you can. It's never a bad idea to find some beta readers from the particular culture you're working with, just to make sure you didn't accidentally write something extremely offensive, but I believe that with enough research, any person from ANY culture can write a good book based on a culture that is not their own.

LJD said:

(btw, the reviews I've seen of Jay Kristoff's Lotus Wars series make me never want to read the books. The handling of the culture does not sound great.)

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Yes, same here, actually. I don't plan on reading those books myself and I certainly don't recommend them. I don't even recommend Risuko. It was OK, but very superficially OK – it had a carefully laid, but thin, very thin varnish of "Japanese culture" over what was a very generic story of a girl trained to be a spy/assassin. If the names and locations were changed, it would be hard to find Japanese influences without a magnifying glass. I just mentioned those books, because they are fairly recent and Japan-inspired.

I'm not writing fantasy or YA, but I am writing a book set in Japan while not being Japanese or Asian myself, so I'm trying to read widely to see how others deal with similar issues. The problem I see with Japan-inspired fantasy, and even with historical novels set in Japan, is that most of their authors are indeed fascinated with Japan, but don't go behind that fascination, and don't seem to realize that fascination does not equal knowledge. They take the external, the cool trappings – names, cultural concepts, religious terms, bits and pieces of folklore – and slap them on stories which at the core have nothing or little to do with Japan. The outcome is often lamentable. Example: I just finished reading a mystery by an otherwise good and respected author, where the setting is mostly 1920s Japan. One of the main characters, a Japanese woman, introduces herself and her family as official favorite acrobats of the Emperor. But the Emperor could never have had or even watched acrobats, because they were considered outcasts, they were unclean.

I know this is a small example, but my point is that it's really difficult to write respectfully about a different culture without studying it in depth, because it's easy to slip and fall without even knowing it. Historical Japan is difficult to research if you don't read Japanese, and by that, I don't mean only contemporary Japanese. Depending on what you're looking for, you need to be able to read classical Japanese, classical Chinese, and/or cursive script. And I have read Japanese historical novels by Japanese authors which had factual errors. And on the list of "samurai warriors, sohei warrior monks, an emperor, a ryokan, temples, festivals, kanji" the only strictly Japanese thing is perhaps samurai, but it depends on the definition

owlion said:

If you're writing a made-up culture, it might be better to just make it all up, rather than base it strongly on Japanese culture, but with a different name. Personally, I'd be inclined to say either make it up entirely or make it very accurate to Japan, otherwise it can feel like cherry-picking. That's just my opinion though.

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I feel this way about most historical books that choose to go the fantasy or "inspired by" route - it always feels as if they didn't want to do the necessary research to actually say it is set in Japan (or wherever).

Part of me feels like yes, go ahead and write it however you want - that's what writing is all about. If every write only wrote autobiographical books, there wouldn't be that many interesting books out there. But another part of me realizes that anyone writing about a culture not their own is probably going to be overly criticised. But then white people who only write about white people are also criticised. So, that loops me back to saying just write what you want and realize there will probably be some pretty heavy criticisms. But there also might be some people who really enjoy the story you have to tell.

I recently watched Isle of Dogs - a movie set in a futuristic Japanese culture. It was criticised for being racist and including every possible Japanese stereotype there is. Here is one such article (there are probably tons more): https://medium.com/@ericcoyote/beware-of-isle-of-dogs-the-fussy-racism-of-wes-anderson-1b1ceb6c4c8e

I recently asked this question at a conference on diversity in writing. The response I got from the panelists was: Don't.

The reasoning was twofold. First, without having that background yourself, you are bound to make mistakes that could potentially offend someone or make them uncomfortable. Second, even if you do a bang-on job, your sensitivity readers say they love it, etc, you are filling a spot that a person who actually has that background and may not have the same privileges a white person does could have had.

Personally, I think anyone should write whatever they want. The recent obsession on YA twitter with writer's backgrounds is weird and disturbing to me. But the points above also make a lot of sense to me and to others, so if you do try and get published, I would expect a very difficult time.

The OP is writing about a setting with elements of Medieval Japan. I would say the proportion of Japanese people born in Japan and raised in that culture know as much about Medieval Japan as the proportion of Americans born in the US and raised in US culture know of colonial life here in the 1600s. Which is likely not a lot.

So it seems to me both the present-day American and the Japanese would have to do equal amounts of research to portray a time and culture that is not their own.

I think that's debatable, Cobalt. I'm not saying she couldn't do the research required, but the history you learn is often culture-specific, and the education you receive is often very focused on your own culture. I can't speak for what students in Japan learn about their history, but a ton of history education in my American school focused on American history and the small details that go along with it. We had entire field trips based around visiting historical sites, seeing how colonial people lived, and a big "gold country" trip to get the knowledge about how the Gold Rush shaped history in California. Things like the difficulties the pilgrims faced upon first arrival are pretty common knowledge to an American. American tall tales (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry and the like) are taught in schools. Even outside of school, Ren faires are common all over America and a lot of our entertainment references American history or well-known American literature. Learning history in your own school is often steeped in that culture and what is still relevant to the existing culture.

The only thing I learned about Japan in history class was the period around the Meijii restoration, because, surprise, that's when America showed up there.

With enough research, I'm sure it can be done. But being mindful of gaps in one's cultural knowledge is also important. Cherry picking historical facts or details of a culture without cultural understanding can lead to things like the aforementioned awkward stereotyping in Isle of Dogs.

Cobalt Jade said:

The OP is writing about a setting with elements of Medieval Japan. I would say the proportion of Japanese people born in Japan and raised in that culture know as much about Medieval Japan as the proportion of Americans born in the US and raised in US culture know of colonial life here in the 1600s. Which is likely not a lot.

So it seems to me both the present-day American and the Japanese would have to do equal amounts of research to portray a time and culture that is not their own.

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I agree, that if it is something in ancient history or a fantasy world inspired by a culture, I think it should be far more acceptable. The history (and stereotypes) that races in our world have wouldn't be the same in a made up fantasy world. That being said, try to avoid those stereotypes at all cost. It always kind of bothered me that in The Hunger Games the district that is primarily black is the farming community that greatly resembles an entire race/district picking cotton. Why would you do that???

However, if it's contemporary, I feel like that's entirely different.