Uh oh - step back
Warning: Minor ranting ahead
First of all, does anyone speak another language? Or understand one? Does it bother you when a book is set in whichever country that may be, and the dialogue, the vocabulary is simply all wrong? Does that happen?
But, there is something I want to get off my chest/rant about. (For those of you who don't know, I'm Asian American.)
I was clicking through author's sites and book excepts as I am wont to do, and encountered - a horror. I found an author who had Asian - Chinese, specifically "themed" books. Set in ancient China. I thought "oh wow- that's interesting." Not something you see every day, but really, a wellspring of fictional wealth. After all, there are thousands and thousands of years of history and culture. Believe me, I know. Sort of. I know there were multiple times I was supposed to learn the dynasties. (This is not the bad part.)
But this author was using "Chinese." Having her characters "speak" it. And of course, they had "Chinese" names too. Notice all the quotations. I'm so irritated. So much of it was so very wrong and so very outrageous. She had characters saying things they never would have said "in real life." A princess just would not speak that way. Or, characters speaking in a way no person ever would. There was a lot of gratuitous "Chinese" thrown in as well.
I will admit, you'll have that with any language. In fact I just read a short story set in France with a lot of clunky out of place French thrown in. They were pretty much the only thing that reminded you the story took place in France. - Does this annoy anyone else?
I think my problem was the author didn't really seem to know what s/he was talking about. At all. As if s/he hadn't bothered to even crack open a children's picture book on Chinese culture. And, the author was white. Hold on. Let me explain. You know the unspoken rule, how only you can make fun of your sibling/family/hometown/school/workplace - but others can't? Well, I'm feeling a little bit of that here. I don't like the superficiality of being "trendy" with no depth.
FYI sushi is not raw fish. Yes, sushi oftentimes does include raw fish, but sushi itself, does not mean raw fish. Please, do not say, "Sushi? Ew -I could never eat raw fish." Actually, I don't like sushi. (It's ok - it's a Japanese food Wink) My problem with sushi is that the rice is vinegared. In my opinion, that's a waste of rice (because too often it's done badly.)
What I'm trying to say is, I'd like an author to look a little deeper, and think a little more. Especially if they're going to be distributing what they write. People are going to read it, and yes. Some of them are going to believe it. Television is a great example.Another FYI - You don't get Mirandized as soon as you're arrested. So if you're ever validly arrested and not immediately Mirandized - your rights most likely have not been violated. Sorry.
Please, be realistic. Not all Asian guys are either kung fu masters or geeky nerds. Or gay. Or a combination. Not all Asian women are dominatrix bitches, or kung fu masters, or subservient and docile. We don't have "supah sekrit sex tricks" - well, no more or less than any other ancient culture. You don't get to wipe away history and culture and life by throwing in a lot of "duibuqi." ("I'm sorry" -don't even get me started on pinyin.)
The names were also bad. I've noticed if an author has an Asian character, oftentimes they have no problem just throwing out some random "Chinese sounding" name. Tong, Ping, and Lee, all those are popular. Lee is a last name. As is Lin, Chang, or W(o/a)ng. You don't meet Asian people named "Lin" because that'd be silly. It'd be like having a character named "Smith Smith" or "Brown Brown." The majority of Chinese names are actually quite similar to ancient Roman names. That's the best comparison I can draw. You have a praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Names also aren't given by how they sound - they're chosen by meaning.
It's really complicated, right? But, really - it's pretty basic at the same time. I mean, it's a name. If you can't get that right, and your entire book is based in China, in ancient China, we're looking at a lot of problems.
Believe it or not, I'm really tolerant of this. I get a lot of "konnichiwa," "ahnyeonghaseyo" (sorry - I'm 99.9% certain the phonetics of that are wrong), and "ni hao" being called at me when I walk around down town. (Thank you, American's Next Top Model.) That's hello in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. (All Asians are the same, right?) Sometimes, I'll get "xie xie" too (oh, how I hate pinyin) - which doesn't even make sense, as that means "thank you." It's difficult to pronounce, I'll give you that. But once, in middle school my church was doing a cultural thing - and partnering with another church. My friends and I wore qipao - those horrible beautiful and restrictive dresses - and served food. One man said "shi shi ni" to me, and I stared at him dumbfounded. I heard him turn to his wife and say, "Oh - she doesn't speak Chinese." I fumed. I was also shocked. Had I not been so young, and if it weren't at church on a Sunday, I might have said, "Excuse me sir - did you just tell me to p*ss myself?" Because that's what he did, really. (And honestly - did he think I just didn't speak any language?)
I've had a myriad of similar experiences. But, for some reason, reading those excerpts just really got my goat. Thoughts?
First of all, does anyone speak another language? Or understand one? Does it bother you when a book is set in whichever country that may be, and the dialogue, the vocabulary is simply all wrong? Does that happen?
But, there is something I want to get off my chest/rant about. (For those of you who don't know, I'm Asian American.)
I was clicking through author's sites and book excepts as I am wont to do, and encountered - a horror. I found an author who had Asian - Chinese, specifically "themed" books. Set in ancient China. I thought "oh wow- that's interesting." Not something you see every day, but really, a wellspring of fictional wealth. After all, there are thousands and thousands of years of history and culture. Believe me, I know. Sort of. I know there were multiple times I was supposed to learn the dynasties. (This is not the bad part.)
But this author was using "Chinese." Having her characters "speak" it. And of course, they had "Chinese" names too. Notice all the quotations. I'm so irritated. So much of it was so very wrong and so very outrageous. She had characters saying things they never would have said "in real life." A princess just would not speak that way. Or, characters speaking in a way no person ever would. There was a lot of gratuitous "Chinese" thrown in as well.
I will admit, you'll have that with any language. In fact I just read a short story set in France with a lot of clunky out of place French thrown in. They were pretty much the only thing that reminded you the story took place in France. - Does this annoy anyone else?
I think my problem was the author didn't really seem to know what s/he was talking about. At all. As if s/he hadn't bothered to even crack open a children's picture book on Chinese culture. And, the author was white. Hold on. Let me explain. You know the unspoken rule, how only you can make fun of your sibling/family/hometown/school/workplace - but others can't? Well, I'm feeling a little bit of that here. I don't like the superficiality of being "trendy" with no depth.
FYI sushi is not raw fish. Yes, sushi oftentimes does include raw fish, but sushi itself, does not mean raw fish. Please, do not say, "Sushi? Ew -I could never eat raw fish." Actually, I don't like sushi. (It's ok - it's a Japanese food Wink) My problem with sushi is that the rice is vinegared. In my opinion, that's a waste of rice (because too often it's done badly.)
What I'm trying to say is, I'd like an author to look a little deeper, and think a little more. Especially if they're going to be distributing what they write. People are going to read it, and yes. Some of them are going to believe it. Television is a great example.Another FYI - You don't get Mirandized as soon as you're arrested. So if you're ever validly arrested and not immediately Mirandized - your rights most likely have not been violated. Sorry.
Please, be realistic. Not all Asian guys are either kung fu masters or geeky nerds. Or gay. Or a combination. Not all Asian women are dominatrix bitches, or kung fu masters, or subservient and docile. We don't have "supah sekrit sex tricks" - well, no more or less than any other ancient culture. You don't get to wipe away history and culture and life by throwing in a lot of "duibuqi." ("I'm sorry" -don't even get me started on pinyin.)
The names were also bad. I've noticed if an author has an Asian character, oftentimes they have no problem just throwing out some random "Chinese sounding" name. Tong, Ping, and Lee, all those are popular. Lee is a last name. As is Lin, Chang, or W(o/a)ng. You don't meet Asian people named "Lin" because that'd be silly. It'd be like having a character named "Smith Smith" or "Brown Brown." The majority of Chinese names are actually quite similar to ancient Roman names. That's the best comparison I can draw. You have a praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Names also aren't given by how they sound - they're chosen by meaning.
It's really complicated, right? But, really - it's pretty basic at the same time. I mean, it's a name. If you can't get that right, and your entire book is based in China, in ancient China, we're looking at a lot of problems.
Believe it or not, I'm really tolerant of this. I get a lot of "konnichiwa," "ahnyeonghaseyo" (sorry - I'm 99.9% certain the phonetics of that are wrong), and "ni hao" being called at me when I walk around down town. (Thank you, American's Next Top Model.) That's hello in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. (All Asians are the same, right?) Sometimes, I'll get "xie xie" too (oh, how I hate pinyin) - which doesn't even make sense, as that means "thank you." It's difficult to pronounce, I'll give you that. But once, in middle school my church was doing a cultural thing - and partnering with another church. My friends and I wore qipao - those horrible beautiful and restrictive dresses - and served food. One man said "shi shi ni" to me, and I stared at him dumbfounded. I heard him turn to his wife and say, "Oh - she doesn't speak Chinese." I fumed. I was also shocked. Had I not been so young, and if it weren't at church on a Sunday, I might have said, "Excuse me sir - did you just tell me to p*ss myself?" Because that's what he did, really. (And honestly - did he think I just didn't speak any language?)
I've had a myriad of similar experiences. But, for some reason, reading those excerpts just really got my goat. Thoughts?