Considering the right side of history.

A while back I talked about character development for Ben and Ariel. I had struggled over their ethnicity because a member of my children’s book group lobbied that my characters be Asian, to be consistent with the origin of Centipede Dragon. I was reticent to this idea right up until the point of my “Speak now…” moment, because minority kid books don’t sell in today's market. Furthermore, I thought the universality of the message in my book would be lost, for once I made the kids Asian, my book would likely be categorized very narrowly. You may think me paranoid, but since officially publishing my book, I have been told by an indie bookstore that my book won’t sell because it’s a folktale. Uh, but it’s NOT a folktale!

Much as we like to think we live in a color-blind society, we in fact do not. Pre-conceived notions about a book are made based on who wrote it and who's in it. If it’s a book with Asian kids, the presumption is that it must be about Asian culture; it can’t simply be about a child who happens to BE a minority, facing a problem that any kid could face. People think there has to be a reason that the kid is Asian. So, making my characters non-descript–in order to appeal to a broader market–seemed the wiser choice.

As I came to terms with self-publication, the reality of my legacy left with this book truly hit home. Why did I really choose to publish under my maiden name? Legacy, I had declared! But why was it important to me to be recognized as an Asian?

Today I have a better understanding of what it means to be Asian in a non-Asian society. This was hard to come by, because there were no positive models for me, in books or elsewhere.

I didn’t want to perpetuate the problem. I wanted to be part of the solution.