I saw this blog post from a gay White male author named Michael Thomas Ford on how it’s assumed that authors always write characters of their own race. This goes back to a point we made a while back about being race blind to the highest extent possible. When is it acceptable? When is it desirable? Most Asian American authors explicitly mention race or ethnicity in their writing. Why do we focus on race? Is it holding us back, or does it make a point?
I almost threw up when I read the end example about Amy Tan. Part of being a typical member of the majority is being unaware of how much most Asian Americans resent the Orientalist nonsense that has come from Amy’s keyboard. Part of being a typical member of the majority is to be blissfully ignorant of the sick stereotypes that Tan has used her work to perpetuate. The fact that Ford brings this up as an example of humor speaks to how many view us. Only the most militant Kingstonian would’ve recounted this story as a means of drawing a comparison with a supposedly ignorant white guy and a supposedly knowledgable minority. I don’t condemn Ford for ignorance, but reading this story made me feel as if he’d driven a spike through my right femur.
Ford wrote:
Okay, so years ago I was working with a publishing house that was attempting to get Tan to write a book for them. The publisher (a middle aged straight white man) was a lovely person, but not terribly socially adept. I was in the elevator one day when this man and Tan got in. As the elevator descended the publisher–clearly trying to find some common ground with this author he badly wanted on his list–turned to Tan and said, “You know, I’ve always liked Chinese food.”
I was going to open a contest and ask you all to finish the story, but I think I’ll do it myself: Amy responded by saying, “You know, I’ve always liked White men.” [Edit: This quote is just a joke.] Hahah…seriously, Amy probably thought it was cute when the guy made the Chinese food remark. They always get a free pass.
Anyway, back to the point. Ethnicity. How much focus should authors place on ethnicity? Is it the same for all people, regardless of the race of the author? What makes sense in this day and age?
Related posts:
But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
I hope Amy Tan meant it in an ironic way. As I’ve mentioned in my post on “Straight Talk On Race” I believe that if a writer is good enough, you probably don’t need to directly focus on the ethnicity of the lead character unless the purpose of the story is to actually somehow make ethnicity the primary issue. For writers like Amy Tan and Kingston, race is everything. For writers like me, race is a secondary issue, and therefore the ethnicity is often put aside.
Im not even sure if even the mainland chinese know enough of their own culture to represent the culture. If anything, the best they can do is represent a subculture of a culture. I like kingston better than Tan, there was a lot of cohesive ideas. Tan brought up a lot of the perceptions people have. Im not sure if either of them knew how to see a bigger picture.
Okada with his one book the No No boy was deep.
and Kang, was more to the point. observations were reasonable.
europeans are more tolerable with race then. right?
Oops. Sorry, I was unclear. That Amy Tan statement was meant as a joke. I have no idea how she responded. I’ll append a clarification in the post.
P2H:
We should have a Writing Ethnicity podcast. You, me, MamaNabi, maybe Larry. I agree with you on the two kinds of writers. I think Gish Jen is a race-primary writer who is very good. I thought Nami Mun’s book was also race-primary and was very good. On the other hand, writers like Kazuo Ishiguro and Nam Le are less race-specific yet still very gifted.
This would make an interesting conversation.
Write the way you see your world. If in your world Asian people are buck-toothed with yellow skin and small slanty eyes, then so be it. Somebody else will eventually come along with a different view of the world, write about Asians differently, and this is how both civil rights and literature evolve.
Akrypti on the podcast!