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I read a great article recently, "The Concept of the Sinophone" by Shu-Mei Shih, that talks about the problems and dangers that come with simplifying a whole cultural group, of seeing it as singular, homogenous, and unchanging.

I have been thinking of this a lot lately in the context of literature, representation, and publishing. As a member of the Sino diaspora, I think sometimes it's very tempting to simplify and generalize a culture in sweeping statements.

We often understand cultures in terms of general ideas and comparisons against other cultures, but when we do this we have to beware that we may be erasing marks of difference, those who are marginalized within already marginalized group, and creating stereotypes.

It's especially tricky when we are talking about cultures that are marginalized and there is a history of misrepresentation/appropriation--we are also always working in that larger context, even if we don't want to. It's unfortunately extra labor that marginalized folks often do.

I always try to remember that I'm coming at cultural topics from the POV of a queer and genderqueer woman who is Han Chinese, an immigrant from Sichuan and a settler on Turtle Island. So much Sinophone studies is about place and specificity is very important.

I have written elsewhere about the vast diversity and different experiences folks in the Sino diaspora have. Folks within my community likely have very different perspectives based on their intersectional identity, where they based, and their relationship to their own culture.

I often get frustrated with publishing, media, and representation because there tends to be a tendency to tokenize. Publications like to have their one or two "token Asian" writer and be done with it. That doesn't allow nuanced discussions or representation. You get One Story.

It's also very easy for outsiders of a community, who are looking in and maybe aren't able to recognize all its complexities and nuances, to fall for this One Story. (See Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Danger of A Single Story)

This tendency to fall for One Story is further complicated by the fact that being a writer/editor/translator/creator also tends to naturally lend someone credibility. When I do cultural consultation for non-Chinese folks, I often remind them that when they write a story,

they are going to be seen as an expert. Even if they have great intentions, and they themselves are very aware that they are writing outside their experiences, people are going to assume they have knowledge about the topic because they wrote a book on it, and it's being published

For traditionally published books, for example, it has the stamp of approval of a publishing house and a marketing team and editors, and less aware folks will assume that they are somehow the expert! People will take their word for things.

This is still going to happen for OwnVoices works. Perhaps even more so because you are writing about your experiences, and your experiences are absolutely yours. But due to the desire for One Story, and the presence of tokenizing, and the fact outsiders can't always discern

a marginalized writer still has a lot of responsibility. I know from my own experience and talking to other Sino diaspora folks we often stress a lot about representation and the harm of misrepresentation, because we have seen and felt all the harm that can come from it :S

I don't have any answers to this but I think it's that folks bear collectively and it's worth to think about responsibility and accountability to one's own community. They are one of the main communities that I write for, after all.

I do think one way to address this issue of homogeneity and tokenizing is more awareness. Folks need to learn to better discern when it happens, to be on the watch for it, to try to not accidentally fall into the One Story idea. To have discussions from different angles.

Whose perspective is this narrative centering? Who is it being written for? What is being left out? What is being erased? Which communities within this larger community may be alienated or harmed here? These are very difficult questions, but also very necessary ones.

It should NEVER be on a single person to bear the burden of having to speak for a community, culture, or country. Rather than falling for One Story, we can really benefit from A DIVERSE RANGE OF STORIES. The simple existence of numerous narrative representations would help with

so many of the issues mentioned here! People would naturally have access to a range of voices, one person wouldn't have to carry the burden of representation alone, and we would have a much more heterogeneous, fluid representation of cultures and communities.

But we are not there yet. To get there we need to support
all marginalized writers, not just the few token ones. We need publishing to stop perpetuating the idea there are just a few slots for marginalized folks, and that's it.

We need openness and this will allow for the flourishing of complex dialogue within a community, and frankly it's this nuance and level of specificity that really interest me and that I connect with as a writer and reader.

Whew. Writing this thread itself has been exhausting and a lot of labor. But I hope it sparks some thought and discussions so folks (including myself) can be more aware and reflect on representation issues going forward and the need for a wider range of voices.

End thread

There is one more thing I want to add which I forgot: literature about marginalized cultures and by authors from that background have a tendency to be read as Representative of that culture. I hate this tendency to treat literature or a narrative as some kind of anthropological

text. Like just let me write my wuxia narrative in peace lol! Unfortunately, it is something that marginalized writers still have to deal with though, and it's kind of outside of own control. But it's helpful to do our part in trying to minimize misunderstanding and being aware

of the power that we do hold when we write stories and not cause more harm. We all have knowledge gaps and no one is perfect. Don't put folks on pedestals. Hopefully, one day there will be so many stories that we won't have to stress out about this as much...

if you want to see an example of the range of different narratives that Sino diaspora folks connect with and the various ways they feel or don't feel seen, just check out this very unscientific call that I put out for folks to discuss Sino diaspora films https://twitter.com/yilinwriter/status/1268755460049342469

so my brain is refusing to turn off and I'm going to continue to adding to this thread (which is now becoming an essay lol) as I think of thoughts...

The idea of One Story for a culture and country is also often perpetuated by folks who dominate that culture/country, or

outsiders who want to reduce a whole culture into one singular caricature. To control the narrative. They are the ones who will benefit the most from this kind of singular representation. Those harmed will be the ones most vulnerable and marginalized. Do not let that happen.