NON-FICTION
I WAS TAKING CONTROL
OF MY OWN REPRESENTATION,
ON MY OWN TERMS,
IN MY OWN LANGUAGE.
are demanding stories that represent far more than white
middle-class North America. We want and need narratives
of diversity not just set in our present, but in our past and
far, far into the future. And not only because these narratives
are in short supply, but, more importantly, these inclusive
tellings are a part of everyday reality for everyone. This is
realistic representation.
Much of my writing has been informed by a keen understanding of missing stories. One of my rather simple strategies has been to people my stories with main characters
of, primarily, East Asian descent, from a North American
context. Mainstream publishing does not in any way reflect
the actual demographics of our society. And for such a very
long time.
My first novel was a heartfelt roar against a lifetime of
experiencing the effects of distorted renderings of Asian
women in North American popular culture. I was taking
control of my own representation, on my own terms, in my
own language.
It matters who and what is being focused upon in fiction.
It matters who is creating a fictional account of these tellings. I don’t think the “burden of representation” rests upon
the shoulders of those who are positioned as underrepresented. If this were the case we would fall into an essentialist
trap that would serve no one well. However, I’m okay with
saying that it is my hope that white writers who are interested in writing about cultures and subjectivities outside of
their own consider very carefully:
1) how many writers from the culture you wish to represent have been published in your country writing in the
same language you will use (i.e. English) to write the story,
2) why do you think you’re the best person to write this
story?
3) who will benefit if you write this story?
4) why are you writing this story?
5) who is your intended audience?
6) if the people/culture you are selecting to write about
has not had enough time, historically and structurally, to
tell their story first, on their own terms, should you be occupying this space?
Stories are wondrous devices. They can serve as time
travel modules as well as being the most perfect empathygenerating operations with holographic capabilities. Stories
can create imaginary simulations of experience so rich and
dense they can feel like they are your own. We can live and
die, mourn and rejoice; we can feel affinity for a fictional
character in a more intimate way than we can feel for our
dearest friends and lovers, because we are allowed access
to a character’s mind. Fiction can sometimes feel more real
than our lived lives, if only in that moment of intense connection, when our physical world slides away and the words
cast another before your mind’s eye.
This magic is not a bubble world that exists in a neutral
space. The magic was wrought by the author who has a
connection to the world she was born into, and she consciously and subconsciously carries those relationships into
the story.
The second stage of relationship can be found inside the
story—the relationships between characters and their settings as written by the author. The relationships between
the fictional elements are modified represe