Asian American Literature- Who is Successful and Who is Not?
By: Nasya Richardson
History of Asian American Literature
Literature is a form of expression, it is a way of representation, and it takes on many forms. Asian American authors have faced the pressures of providing work that is marketable in order to be accepted in Western society.Throughout history, Asian-Americans have been viewed as the newcomers to America and with this, many challenges have followed in the way that they are viewed. Asian-American writers have been forced to navigate many spoken as well as unspoken expectations on how to approach life to be a writer in America’s society.
Being Asian-American can mean more than just this one identity, but because of how this identity is perceived in America, it impacts how and what they write about. Typically, identifying as Asian-American writer means writing about immigrant experiences, struggles, and adjusting to society but many Asian-Americans writers are pushing boundaries and blurring categories for their work. When immigration of Asians into America was beginning, Americans borrowed from European ideas of labeling Asian-Americans as mysterious, and this harmful projection of Asian-Americans led them to be defined by what could not be known. Many individuals began to call themselves “Asian-Americans’’ in the effort to emphasize that they were and had been writers who wrote of immigration, and other storylines of love and dignity. Early writers who demonstrated these storylines include Sui Sin Far, Carlos Bulosan, John Okada and Hisaye Yamamato.
The Book Industry
“We guessed that most of the authors would be white, but we were shocked by the extent of the inequality once we analyzed the data. Of the 7,124 books for which we identified the author’s race, 95 percent were written by white people.” (So, Wezerk 2020) This information highlighted in the New York Times reveals how racially White the book industry is. Breaking into this industry as a minority is not an easy task as the numbers reveal these barriers. Often, the support from a publisher that a minority may receive corresponds with current events that impact market sales. An example of this is how in the 2020 summer of the Black Lives Matter protest, books written by black writers climbed the best seller list. During the year of 2020, only 22 out of the 220 books on the New York Time’s Best Seller list for fiction were written by people of color. “Literary prizes may also make publishing appear more diverse than it actually is. Over the past decade, more than half of the 10 most recent books that were awarded the National Book Award for fiction were written by people of color; Colson Whitehead has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice in the past four years.” (So, Wezerk 2020). This false sense of appropriate diversity is dangerous as it promotes the idea that there is no problem in the first place. When things like this occur, it provides individuals on the outside to be more likely to not see any issue or room for improvement in what writings and writers get represented. There is also a correlation that exists between the number of books published by people of color when people of color are present and working in the publishing industry. The correlation is positive of course, but when looking at how low the number of minorities in publishing is, it is daunting. Gatekeeping in the publishing industry is evident and this is happening largely because it is a white industry. Opportunities are not extended which results in the lack of Asian-American literature and writers able to express themselves.
Defining Success
Due to the difficulty for a variety of Asian American authors to enter this space, the representation of Asian Americans has become extremely limited. When comparing writers that have found success within the writing industry and those who have not it is evident that those with the most success better fit the western notions. So what exactly is it that makes a great writer? A good writer pays great attention to detail, allowing them to easily spot mistakes and transform the work to be more descriptive. A good writer has discipline. They are constantly focused on their writing even when things get frustrating. A good writer is able to demonstrate clarity as their main point will be clear and understandable to the reader. A good writer has strong vocabulary and is open to changes. Being open minded allows the writer to view the work from another perspective. A good writer should have a passion for reading as these passions will reflect in their work. All of these qualities make a good writer, so it leaves one to consider the question of what makes a great writer. Who are these writers that are being given the spotlight, space and support to become popular and well-known. Many Asian-American writers possess these qualities of a good writer and beyond, so it is important to examine how their community is being essentially left out. When looking at the history of Asian American literature, there has been only few writers who were considered successful. Many publishers have had the power to essentially pick who will be the representative of a group of people as writers, making those considered successful within the Asian-American community a smaller group when it could be extremely large. Throughout history, the idea that there is only room for a few individuals from a minority group that can represent success has been damaging and hindering to the growth and confidence of many. Gatekeeping of opportunities is the overall blame for the lack of proper platforms for Asian-American writings.
Barriers
The neglect of Asian-American representation in literature can essentially be traced back to the barriers, more specifically the language and cultural barriers. As mentioned earlier, Asian-Americans are a minority group that is made up of a variety of different people. Asian Americans are divided by class, geography, sexual orientation, language and many other characteristics. Due to these many existing groups, the Asian American Movement and the production of traditional Asian-American literature has been extremely important. Many Asian-American writers may share similar pasts and presents, but their future experiences differ, making Asian-American literature complex and not a single model as it is often depicted. Many Asian American novels are written for specific perspectives which makes creating a definition for Asian-American literature even more difficult. An example of this would be “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. This fictional novel also took a film form and the target audience is largely the Western crowd as the movie serves as some of the first exposure to what a Geisha is in Asian culture.
Modern Recognition
Many Asian-American writers have struggled to get their work published as the task of finding a publisher has been proven to be extremely difficult. For Alexander Chi, this was the case as he had a difficult time as a gay Korean writer to find a publisher for his work. He was rejected constantly to the point where he had to step back to examine his own work, questioning for a second if it was valuable enough. His work did not fit into the “box” that many publishers consider when receiving work from Asian-Americans. His book was “A shattering novel about wading through the trauma of sexual abuse; that most of the industry failed to appreciate.” His writing didn’t fit into the perfect category ideal for the publishing industry as there was confusion in viewing his novel. “They couldn’t figure out if it was an Asian-American novel or what they call a gay novel.” In the attempt to create concrete categories in which a writing must fall under in order to be desirable, many writers are left questioning their work, and forced to maintain a desire for writing through self-assertion. Many who get attention as Asian-American writers receive it through writing in close proximity to their Asianness leaving many other Asian-American writers with different styles and storylines in different situations.
Within the past two decades we can recognize that many Asian-American writers are expressing their voices for change. Many Asian-Americans have decided to challenge the barriers that they face by continuing to remain true to themselves
- In 2016, “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen received the Pulitzer Prize.
-”Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi won a national book award.
-Celeste Ng curated the very popular “Everything I Never Told you”
“Everything I Never Told You” is an important modern piece of work that has received a larger recognition from an female Asian-American writer. In the novel, race, culture and mystery come together to tell a family story. The novel depicts the relationship between parents and their children. In an interview, Celeste Ng expressed that “American culture doesn’t seem to know what to do with Asian men who don’t fit the stereotype” when asked if she felt like there was an underrepresentation of Asian men in the media. She expressed that when it comes to representation, Asian-Americans need to be seen and that people need to understand that they have a unique experience that exists. People cannot rely on stereotypes largely promoted through the media as the lens to viewing Asian-Americans and their work. Celeste Ng emphasizes that female Asian-American writers exist, but “They’re just not seen. “They don’t get the spotlight”. She importantly states that “It’s problematic that Asian people can only talk about Asianness to get attention”. Many Asian-American writers such as Celeste Ng want to write about things other than strictly being Asian. Celeste has done this in her writing while also creating representation as the main characters are often young Asian girls and boys that readers can connect to and see themselves as.
Perspectives
Within many forms outside of literature, Asian-Americans have faced challenges as they have been shut out of mainstream production. In American theater and film, we see this gatekeeping taking place. Identity politics has played a large role. Categories are put in place for Asian-Americans and in a way they are forced to decide what category to pick as different power structures come with them. For example, if one decides to call themself “Asian-American” they will be perceived as more normal or more of “the average person” rather than if someone would refer themself as “Oriental” instead. Frank Chin, an Asian-American editor from Chinatown New-York possesses the opinion that many Chinese-American sought becoming “prizewinning poodles” and seeking the validation of “the master race” When reflecting on older literary works from Asian-Americans, Chin felt that “American culture had wrecked their brains, leaving many of their peers awash in self-contempt”. This perspective is interesting to look at because when looking at the writer’s perspective, one could come to the conclusion that this was done with a purpose in order to be given a platform in the first place.
Moving Forward
The problem is a homogeneous publishing industry. In order to capture the attention of publishers things have to look a certain way, and fit a certain perspective. This has to continue to be challenged as work that does not necessarily fit into the designated categories deserves a chance. In order to move forward, gatekeepers cannot continue to view the work of minorities as “other” but everything has to be looked at collectively. Many writers are encouraged and motivated to continue to push for better recognition by continuing to create the amazing work that they do. With time, American literature will be shaped into something completely different. New perspectives will be formed and existing perspectives will be satisfied. When looking at the publishing industry specifically, a good start would be diversifying it as a whole. With increased minorities in the publishing industry, there will almost certainly be an increase in literature from minorities as they will not be considered the “others” when looking at their work. Increased representation is motivation for young writers to try their hardest in inspiring others. It is special when a group of people can serve as such a large source of inspiration, and this should be experienced by all. Moving forward, there should be several spots for Asian-American women such as Celeste Ng to have a platform as well as there is plenty of space for more than just a few minority writers to thrive.
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