Ethnic Americans Writing Outside Their Ethnicities
When I rediscovered my love for creative writing in college, I wrote the inevitably autobiographical stories thinly disguised as fiction that most writers need to get out of their system early in their journey to mastering the craft of fiction. None of the stories were any good. Then out of college I started writing stories about white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) women old enough to be grandmothers who lived in small towns in Texas. So completely not what I looked like. So completely not what people expected I should be writing. Yet I thought there were interesting seeds. A writing teacher suggested that focus more on "what I knew." I argued that I knew Texas culture, having grown up there, so I liked to think of those early stories as authentic.
Regardless, I might be just talking about myself, but I do believe that because we had to integrate two or more different cultures in our lives, many ethnic Americans (especially first generation born in American) have developed a capacity to really put themselves into other people's shoes and see the world through perspectives quite different from their own. That skill is extremely useful for writing fiction, though it's not the only skill needed. The flip side is that ethnic Americans take for granted details about their private culture which may be viewed as different and exotic to the mainstream American.
While Lisa Yee certainly looks Chinese-American, she sounds 100% mainstream, though in a good way, especially when she is reading from her newest novel, So Totally Emily Ebers. Emily's story is third in a series of novels, and since Millicent and Stanford are both Chinese American, Emily is the first Caucasion point of view character.
Even though I understand the great need to create authentic multicultural novels featuring multicultural protagonists, I'm actually surprised I couldn't think of more ethnic American authors writing realistic stories with white American protagonists.
Regardless, I might be just talking about myself, but I do believe that because we had to integrate two or more different cultures in our lives, many ethnic Americans (especially first generation born in American) have developed a capacity to really put themselves into other people's shoes and see the world through perspectives quite different from their own. That skill is extremely useful for writing fiction, though it's not the only skill needed. The flip side is that ethnic Americans take for granted details about their private culture which may be viewed as different and exotic to the mainstream American.
While Lisa Yee certainly looks Chinese-American, she sounds 100% mainstream, though in a good way, especially when she is reading from her newest novel, So Totally Emily Ebers. Emily's story is third in a series of novels, and since Millicent and Stanford are both Chinese American, Emily is the first Caucasion point of view character.
Even though I understand the great need to create authentic multicultural novels featuring multicultural protagonists, I'm actually surprised I couldn't think of more ethnic American authors writing realistic stories with white American protagonists.
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posted by Emily Jiang at 11:14 PM
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2 Comments:
And what about Ethnic American authors who write outside their culture, that is not white? We can't take for granted that when an Ethnic author writes outside her culture, she is writing about a white protagonist or antagonist.
I'm Chinese American and want to write a story about a young Japanese American teen who is sent to the internment camps; I consider that outside my culture because I'm not Japanese American.
I'm not surprised you didn't find more examples like Yee's Emily Embers. As ethnic writers we have so much to write about in & out of our culture, that does not involve white characters.
Thanks for the discussion, Emily.
Jeny Han's SHUG has a white protagonist, although there is a Korean American best friend.
And...uh...nothing else comes to mind. Justina Chen Headley's third novel (currently slated for the Fall 2008 list) also has a white main character.
Interesting discussion! I think that as long as the voice is authentic, authors can and should write whatever gender/ethnicity/age they want. "Ethnic authors" needn't feel the responsibility to only write books with ethnic protagonists.
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