White Authors Writing Ethnic

When I was a kid, Farewell to Manzanar was the only Asian American story that I had ever studied. Nothing else was easily available except The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. I thought that this author was Chinese or Chinese-American, and I was so excited to find another author who was Asian. Then as a teen, I discovered to my horror that Pearl Buck was white.

I thought how dare Pearl Buck write about the Chinese experience? I assumed she was a middle class White Anglo-Saxon Protestant woman who had never visited China, and even if she had, she would have seen it through her Amiercanized lens. I was incredibly upset because why couldn't a real Chinese person have written The Good Earth? Plus, in the movie version, the directors/producers decided on a white actress in yellow face rather than casting a real Asian-American actress. And guess who won the Best Actress Oscar?

What I didn't realize at the time was that Pearl Buck's childhood experiences were much like my own childhood experiences of being The Other. Surrounded by mostly Chinese people, Pearl's first language was Chinese, even though she was taught English by her mother. So even though she looked white, Pearl's sensibilties therefore were mostly Chinese mixed with the American influences of her parents.

I remember at a recent Asian-themed Reading the World, a multicultural children's literature conference, the amazing Katherine Paterson was a keynote speaker. Now, I am a big fan of Katherine Paterson's writing, but I wondered why she was invited to speak alongside ethnic-American authors like Ed Young and Linda Sue Park. I thought, couldn't they have invited someone more representative of the ethnic-American or even purely Asian voice?

The reality was, tall white American Katherine Paterson was born in China and spent a significnat amount of her childhood in China. She had lived in Japan for four years pursuing her graduate degree. So despite her white American appearance, Katherine Paterson was perhaps more in touch with some Asian sensibilities that than many Asian-Americans.

No matter who writes the novel, it needs to be authentic.

Here are some very recent examples of novels featuring ethnic protagonists written by white authors:

J.L. Powers' debut gritty YA novel The Confessional about male conflict between Mexican American and white American is already causing controversy, but not because of the fact that the author is female and white. During her childhood, Powers grew up in a barrio on the border of U.S. and Mexico as the only white kid in her class, and that lends an authenticity to her novel.

Jeff Stone sold a 5-book kung fu series called The Five Ancestors, all featuring Asian protagonist children, for a reported $500k advance, and his credentials for writing the novels is his black belt in martial arts.

Though Alan Gratz was born and bred in the American South, his first novel Samurai Shortstop is about two of his interests, baseball and Japan. He researched for months before writing the first chapters.

There are many more Caucasian novelists like Katherine Paterson and Gloria Whelan who write realistic fiction in other cultures. My favorite fantasy author who easily writes in different historical and cultural contexts is Donna Jo Napoli, and from a past conversation with her, I know she researches everything before, during and even after she writes her drafts. The bottom line is, do your homework.

Also, Rene (not to be confused with Shen's Renee) wrote a great thought-provoking post at La Bloga about writing multicultural picture books outside one's culture.