By Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico,
and Junko Sakoi, Tucson Unified School District
This week, we discuss new patterns in portraying additional U.S. Asian groups in books by new transnational authors. Like books about Korean and Japanese people and cultures, we observed new themes and perspectives that differ from previous Asian-American books in the ’90s and 2000s. We wondered how such new insights and experiences came to be available for young readers. One big change we’ve observed is the growth of new career authors and illustrators who have different stories to tell compared to previous decades’ stories.
Many new transnational authors and illustrators work for two publishers, one in their home country and one in the U.S. Also, these authors write culturally specific and socially inclusive stories, going beyond Asian-Americans’ previous focus on “new” immigrants and long- and short-term consequences of immigration. We introduce additional resources for young Asian-American children’s voices under the title “Calling Them Asian-American Books Isn’t Sufficient.” Following with that idea, we listed new transnational authors that we hope teachers and parents add to their bookshelves.
Calling Them Asian-American Books Isn’t Sufficient
Author of The Way Home Looks Now (2015), Wendy Wan-Long Shang put together small pieces of simplified knowledge of Chinese past and present to create a literary quilt. She presents a literary timeline of Japanese occupation of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, political migrating to Taiwan (1930s to 1949), the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), and Chinese-Americans and Taiwanese-Americans as a whole through her two books, The Way Home Looks Now (2015) and The Great Wall of Lucy Wu (2011). Shang’s books are good examples of new transnational authors, informing mainstream readers about diversity within Asian groups.
Title: The Great Wall of Lucy Wu (2011)
Author: Wendy Wan-Long Shang
One day Lucy’s father goes on a business trip to China and returns with a lost aunt, a sister of Lucy’s grandmother, Po Po. The news about the unexpected guest devastates Lucy because she looked forward to having her own room after her big sister, Regina, left. The new roommate causes tension at home, and Lucy faces bullying at school. Yet Lucy receives help and guidance from Po Po in her battle to accept her bicultural identity. The book illustrates the importance of cultural heritage and standing up for oneself. The book also introduces the Chinese Cultural Revolution and challenges Asian stereotypes through Lucy’s big brother, who is more interested in history than math.
Title: The Way Home Looks Now (2015)
Author: Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Strict and somewhat inflexible Ba (father) becomes a Little League baseball coach, and Peter learns unknown sides of Ba as he plays on the team. It has been difficult to understand Ba because Peter’s big brother is no longer around. The story examines historical connections of how Taiwanese baseball teams were created under Japanese occupation and historical relations between China and Taiwan. Wendy Wan-Long Shang’s books also portray social themes such as bullying and gender stereotypes; this book mentions the social resistance against female baseball players in 1970s Pittsburgh.
Title: Just Like Me (2016)
Author: Nancy J. Cavanaugh
Adoptions from Korea and China are not uncommon in the U.S., but even so, young adoptees do not have many books that mirror their own experiences, especially for middle grade readers. This book, while integrating elements of didacticism, follows three Chinese adoptee girls from the same Chinese orphanage. Though they share similar backgrounds as Chinese adoptees living with non-Chinese families, they don’t all get along from the beginning.
Title: Red Butterfly (2015)
Author: A. L. Sonnichsen
This is a transnational adoption story. Kara, abandoned by her biological mother in China, was taken by an American woman living in China. Because of her American mother’s legal status in China, they experience severe poverty, leading to Kara’s later adoption by a family in Florida. Chinese adoptions are common, yet details of those adoptees’ journeys are few and far between. This book invites readers to think about current global issues of transnational orphans and vulnerable young people.
Title: Listen, Slowly (2015)
Author: Thanhha Lai
California-born-and-raised Mai visits Vietnam — Hanoi and Saigon — with her grandmother. Mai immerses herself in the Vietnamese language, food and culture, and she learns about her Vietnamese heritage. This book is one of few in which the U.S. Asian character visits her cultural home country.
Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Check out our two online journals, WOW Review and WOW Stories, and keep up with WOW’s news and events.
- Themes: Junko Sakoi, Yoo Kyung Sung
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, Debates & Trends, WOW Currents