During the whitewashing cover brouhaha that erupted around Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix a lot of white people fell over themselves to signal-boost and shout how very outraged they were over the whole thing (including pearl-clutching over their race being insulted. What race is that? Why, Caucasian!). One of them (cache) had this to say:
This story, which anyone who’s read it can tell you, is authentically Chinese. It is set in the Xian province of historical China and is deeply, deeply ingrained in Chinese history, Chinese culture, and Chinese folklore and mythology.
This is not a Chinese-inspired alternate universe. It is not a matter of disguising willful racism as poetic license. It’s a story set in *actual* pre-China, with *actual* Chinese characters. It is a story with mythical elements and fantastic adventures, but it is never inauthentic in any way.
It’s from nothing to “holy shit, shut the fuck up, white person” in one paragraph flat. It also reminds me that while Racefail ’09 has done something to affect the genre, a lot of it was really about white people scrambling to save face and look more enlightened than the next white person, and a long, long train of SJ warriors clawing each other out of the way to be the first to yell “GOTCHA!” for years afterward.
See, I understand that this person is trying to be very progressive, very supportive, and very Minority Warrior about it all. And sure, whitewashing is a real issue which more people should be made aware of…
But I’ve had it up to fucking here with white people making grand proclamations concerning authenticity.
*For what it’s worth, I tried to contact this person privately: all I asked was “Are you Chinese?” I received no reply and soon found all the relevant entries locked from public view; I’ve subsequently found out that Bookshop is, in fact, not even a little bit Chinese in any way.
The Minority Warrior goes on to talk about–
its original beautiful, proudly Chinese cover
I don’t think I need to point out why it’s presumptuous for a white person to talk about something being “proudly Chinese” as though she knows a thing about being Chinese. Let alone when that something isn’t “proudly Chinese” but cheap, hideous exotified claptrap.
at its heart it is a story about female empowerment that is brought about through connection with culture and heritage. It is a coming of age story that is inextricably tied to Ai Ling’s empowerment through her identity, not just as a woman, but as a Chinese woman.
And, again with the commentary on Chineseness. With italics for emphasis. Whitey can’t stop, shan’t stop, will never ever stop, for whitey knows best. Disregarded is the fact that the Chinese-based culture in question is hateful, racist and deeply misogynistic, whereas the culture based on the west in the same narrative is touted as post-feminist and egalitarian on top of being racism-free. They are social justicing, okay? Critical thought is not welcome!
The same trainwreck continues in the review of Fury of the Phoenix (cache here) where they busted out this bit of ethnocentric imperialist essentialism:
I’ll teeter further out on that limb and say it’s a very Christian worldview, because it takes the view that every person deserves forgiveness and understanding, no matter how evil they are, or how heinous their sin.
The idea of forgiveness and grace being, apparently, exclusive to Christianity. I don’t think they even know how to spell “Buddhism.” You know, the religion that revolves around the idea that if you keep reincarnating you’ll eventually reach a state of grace and enlightenment–that everyone is inherently capable of reaching that state, given enough hard work and striving? It’s an oversimplification, sure, but the idea that forgiveness and understanding are some exclusive Christian thing reeks of white man’s burden so hard I want to dig up Rudyard Kipling’s corpse and throw it into an acid vat. Which would be unkind to the vat, now that I think about it, so maybe I should throw the rotten carcass at this person instead.
When we left our heroine, Ai Ling, things had settled down for her considerably after a long and tumultuous journey to the capital of Xia (the fictional country based on China’s historical Xiang Province)
What is this gibberish. Not only does Cindy Pon say that she doesn’t base her books on any particular period in Chinese history, let alone a specific region, this doesn’t make any sense. At a guess, Bookshop looked up “Xian” on wikipedia, stumbled on that, and decided it’s gospel truth. Or maybe this factoid was pulled out of someone’s ass, I don’t know. Whites are experts on everything.
I won’t even touch the “oh, this is an amazing piece of work because it’s about forgiving a rapist! GRACE COMES TO EVERYONE!!” because that makes my skin crawl and I’m not sure if I want to comment on missing the internalized misogyny, the borderline-abusive relationship between Ai Ling and Asshole Love Interest because fuck it, I’m done caring and YA as a genre is an eternal hopeless scum-pond where Bellas, Edwards and Minority Warriors thrive. But does anyone know why exactly we need more narratives about rapists being forgiven and where they’re granted a perspective so we can learn they are people too?* What fine subtleties am I missing? Are murderous rapists the new protected class? “Rapists: They Have Feelings Too!” pride parades? Brb vomiting.
*There could be a point made that rapists are also everyday, ordinary people, not monsters who leap out at you from dark alleyways, to raise awareness that you too could have raped or done rapey things/thought rapey thoughts, because things like acquaintance rapes–and misogyny functions insidiously, not as a result of “evil monsters who decide to be sexist.” But I really don’t think a narrative that goes “so, this is how a murderous rapist who eats people’s souls came to be that way, and this is how he is completely forgiven at the end without even having tried to apologize for the horrible shit he did–including apologizing to the girl he tried to rape” contributes to that point in any fucking way.
YAfantasy.com spat out this bit of excrement (also on goodreads):
Silver Phoenix is an exquisite Asian fairytale, something I’ve been hoping for for some time. Of course, my knowledge of ancient China is pretty limited, but it felt very authentic to me, and we can chalk up any problems to the fact that this is fantasy, and not exactly China.
The magical and mythological themes in the novel were really interesting. It seemed like many of the myths and creatures were or easily could be rooted in real Chinese mythology.
Allison, someone afflicted with an acute case of yellow fever (i.e. orientalist fuckwad):
A highlight of this book was the food. Ai Ling sure loves her food. The author took care to describe every meal and snack in great detail. As someone who has spent time in Taiwan and Japan and loves authentic Asian food, this book made me drool continuously for hours.
There’s also what Robin McKinley said, which I covered way back when, with gems like:
The first paragraph of the prologue of SILVER PHOENIX may make the average modern first-world female reader rock back on her heels slightly. [...] It has a gorgeous Chinese girl in a great PINK robe+ against a light, bright background with glimpses of a Chinese-y dragon and a building with curly corners [Which I thought was Japanese, but there’s a lot of cross-pollination in the Far East].
The ensuing discussion from above featured:
I have to admit I’ve never heard of this writer, but the setting appeals to me instantly. The last books I read which were set in the far east were Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori trilogy (Across the Nightingale Floor was the first book)
To which I can only say: eat your keyboard and choke on it. Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori is disgusting dreck by the way. If you like it for the setting, please kindly eat your copies. I hope the ink gives you some kind of poisoning.
Reviewing Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven, a book set in faux-China:
I think UNDER HEAVEN would be a fine introduction to his work. It’s chock full of his strengths (most particularly his well-developed characters, authentic settings and intricate plots), and it should give you an idea of how you react to what might be percieved as his weaknesses (repetition, the odd slow patch, etc).
Regarding the same, on the Paizo boards:
And I think it always takes him time to get going (in the 4 or 5 Kay novels I’ve read), yet I’ve never had a problem with it because the writing is so beautiful and the feeling of being submerged in another culture feels so utterly authentic once you get there–it’s worth the price.
Amazon review from one Giles Gammage:
In “Under Heaven”, Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay swaps the familiar harmonies of Europe for the more exotic tones of China, but the leitmotif remains the same–the power of personal decisions to shape world-shaking events.
The beginning of Under Heaven is very exotic. This is Chinese-flavoured high fantasy yet without the trappings of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-esque martial arts genre.
Guy Gavriel Kay? White dude. So white. So very very white he looks like a corpse.
The purpose of this post isn’t so much to tear into these reviewers as individuals, but to show their reviews up as part of the trend of white people being taken as an authority on cultural/ethnic authenticity: nobody challenged Bookshop’s assertions of “authenticity” (though one person did point out some problems) or even said It’s not your place to make such claims. It ties neatly into people bleating “authentic!” over Bacigalupi’s racist, orientalist tripe The Wind-Up Girl, with people taking for granted that expat-written diarrhea about Thailand is perfectly authentic and authoritative, and the excrement that is the travel writing genre where white people who do nothing special traipse around in EXOTIC LAND and get praised for their deep insights, their “authenticity,” their “insider looks” into poverty-stricken thirdworldia or whatever’s the flavor of the month for useless bleeding-heart slacktivists.
And, moreover, this cultural imperialism springs exactly from people who believe they are enlightened liberal social justice warriors who are interested in the plight of developing nations and chromatic folks, not proud card-carrying members of the Aryan Nations. It’s a type of insidious racism that Minority Warriors don’t want to admit they are party to because, damn it, they read about the invisible knapsack so BY GOD THEY ARE ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!1!! Give them the gold stars! They signal-boosted whitewashed covers and made all the correct noises! What more do you want. What more do you expect.
I don’t know if these are the “allies” anyone looks for, but I for one would rather do without if these are all the “Anti-Racist Allies! 50% Off!” isle has to offer. Not even with that discount. Not even if you give me free extras–in fact especially if you give me extras. What do I want? A fucking refund.
Next Friday
/ January 20, 2012Have you ever seen China done right by an outsider?
You think it’s even possible?
acrackedmoon
/ January 20, 2012About as rarely as you’ve seen Russia done right by an outsider, I’d guess. ;)
Off the top of my head: not China, not Thailand. Geoff Ryman is one of the very tiny handful of white writers I maybe trust not to fuck up six ways to Sunday, but he’s only written a book set in Cambodia, and I can’t really speak on that with any certainty.
Next Friday
/ January 22, 2012Off the top of my head, it was like… once.
And it was a movie. K-19, about a soviet submarine. I was shocked.
Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter?
acrackedmoon
/ January 22, 2012Nah, The King’s Last Song is the novel-length one. Pol Pot’s is a novella or short story IIRC.
saajanpatel
/ January 20, 2012Damn, Guy Gavriel Kay is inauthentic -> wanted to read his stuff and see how it fared.
It is interesting, I was having a conversation sorta about this yesterday where I mentioned I’d rather have someone have authentic interesting in Indian culture yet come in with stereotypes than someone who just trying to score points.
Admittedly, in the US we have a problem among people of color as well, where some people think everyone gets to bear the cross of historical racism and prejudice in America while ignoring the experiences of different groups are very, very different.
Larry
/ January 20, 2012Kay’s writing is to native cultures as a chicken nugget is to a living chicken. There might be elements that are taken almost whole-cloth from various cultures (I called it “appropriation” when I reviewed Under Heaven last year, as that denotes the type of “borrowing” that took place), but the entire thing feels devoid of life, as if it had been processed too much to make it palatable for Western consumption. Some people love it, but when I knew some of the historical periods that he appropriated and then proceeded to fail to make it interesting or even true to the spirit of those real times/locales, I came to think of his work as one of the worst derivatives one could find, even despite his ability to write nice-sounding sentences.
saajanpatel
/ January 20, 2012Thanks Larry, will definitely have to check out your review. It is a bit disappointing that so many of these books are given such acclaim for authenticity, never mind the fact that there are so many levels of removal from being a visitor/expat and being an actual citizen.
As a person who is racially/ethnically Indian but born and raised in the US, I would never claim to give an “authentic” view of India, and would feel like an asshat if I did.
N
/ January 20, 2012This is so weird. I’ve encountered bookshop’s writing before – she wrote a fairly decent piece about rape culture in YA novels a couple of years back, and it wasn’t full of batshit like this one. I would have respected her far more if she’d just used her brain a little instead of going effectively “OOOOH EXOTIC CHINESE PRETTY.”
N
/ January 20, 2012Though admittedly, if one leaves out any opinion of the contents of the book (haven’t read the second one), I do get her drift about the whitewashing of the cover.
I mean, what if it was another, actually decent book set in China, and forced to make its cover model a white girl instead of Chinese? Or if the original cover did not look quite so cheap, with that shiny nylon thing she’s wearing and the cliched pose and shit photography?
acrackedmoon
/ January 20, 2012That’s a lot of ifs. :p
I don’t think Silver Phoenix deserved to have its cover whitewashed because it’s a shitty book–though it is that–but I’d say it’s possible for white allies to signal-boost and talk about that stuff without going “authentic!” over and over. In fact, it’s just as simple as reporting the facts succinctly without adding all the words to make sure people know that I R GOOD ALLY! LOOKIT ME! and how very, very aggrieved you feel. It’s the thing with appropriated outrage.
On which note, if I’d seen Silver Phoenix in a bookstore with the original cover I’d have walked to the other side of the store in disgust.
N
/ January 20, 2012Yeah, I’m being VERY hypothetical here.
And the drooling over the “authentic” (and implied “exotic”) portrayal of Chinese culture is what raised my eyebrows too, I mean how can you even judge the authenticity of the portrayal of a culture that you’ve never been a part of/have no experience with?
acrackedmoon
/ January 20, 2012She… watches Asian pop media. And bands. Or something. And reads fanfic shipping them, I guess, which is mildly creepy if you think about it.
It’s unfortunately, really. Prior to finding the entry where she went AUTHENTIC CHINESE CHINESE CHINESE I didn’t have any qualms with her, much. She has said interesting things and written about insights into fandom.
Emil Söderman
/ January 20, 2012I just realized that when you say “expats” you mean european/american expats in Thailand, not thai expats abroad. That had confused me a bit.
Honestly, if you’ve not lived there you have no business whatsoever talking about authenticity. (and even if you’ve moved there it’s kind of eh…) doesen’t mean your book can’t be more or less well-researched, but authentic? No.
Which isn’t to say an outsiders view can’t be interesting (in both seeing things you don’t see yourself and getting things wrong…) but it’s not authentic.
layogenic
/ January 20, 2012“Well-researched.” That’s the term these people should be using. Even if it is not, in fact, well-researched, because that can be argued directly. “Authentic” is a word that has no objective meaning unless you go to an extreme…in which case there’s utterly no point in using the word. If you had a book about China in the, say, birth of the Qin dynasty, that was written by a Chinese person who lived there during the birth of the Qin dynasty and wrote it at the time…it would be authentic. But you wouldn’t have to say it at all in that case. (and even then you could quibble about whether or not they accurately–another better word than ‘authentically’–portrayed cultural minorities of which they were not a part or the psychology of the ruling class etc etc, which is why words like this are only used for fiction)
Captain Falcon (@psychoxnino)
/ January 21, 2012Can’t get over the title “Under Heaven.” I wonder if Kay ever addresses his use of the phrase in the novel itself. “Tianxia” is what the phrase is in pinyin, usually translating as “under heaven” or “the land under heaven.” It can be used to refer to the world itself, but in the historical and political setting, it refers to the celestial kingdom, aka the Chinese empire. It shows up in the movie “Hero,” but it makes sense there because that movie is set at the time of the founding of the first dynasty and the establishment of the empire.
Kay’s novel is basically a retelling of the An Shi Rebellion. I mean, I guess it could work, but I’m having trouble coming up with how.
In unrelated news, Elizabeth Bear has a novel to be released in March of this year, called “Range of Ghosts,” set in central Asia. One comment I read online said that the summary sounds like it’s a retelling of the story of the young Genghis Khan. If it’s true, I wouldn’t have much objections except that the summary makes it seem as if they were trying to conceal that point, the same with Kay’s book. Of course, can’t judge it before it’s out, but, well, brace yourself just in case.
dollsgarden
/ April 3, 2013Your rant about rapists having feelings too delighted me in a macabre way. This is the response to society telling people: “Don’t get raped!” instead of: “Don’t rape!”