'China Dolls' has been out in bookstores for a few months now and we've received a fair amount of "fan" mail. The majority of the emails we receive are positive. Everyone is usually enthusiastic, expressing their excitement in reading 'China Dolls' and wanting to know when the next book will come out. Then, there are some that write more detailed messages--telling us how they liked a certain character over another, etc. Then, there are some that we think are a bit abrasive. One of those "fans" stick out to us. We think this fan has been DYING to be written about in our blog and now they will finally have their chance in the spotlight. Listen up! We have this one person whom we'll call, "Looney", who likes to write us obnoxious, hate mail about how we are not shedding enough positive light on Asian men and that we are haters and don't write enough about them and that us taking a picture with Yul Kwon, the winner of Survivor, doesn't salvage anything. Clearly, this person is really deep down a HUGE fan of 'China Dolls' and for that, we thank you. We thank you for tuning in and reading our blog under full scrutiny. However, please let us clarify a few things:

1. 'China Dolls' is a fiction about Asian American women. We are writing what we Asian American women know and deal with. Of course, Asian men come to play in our novel but they cannot dominate our book and being that we are NOT Asian American men, we are unable to put ourselves in their mindsets and write from their perspectives. For those Asian men, who want to read a book about the Asian male perspective, we encourage you to write your own book and talk about your own views on stereotypes against Asian men. Writing your own book is enlightening!

2. "Looney" mentions that there are a lack of Asian male characters in the book. Maybe we should take it back that we called them a huge fan because if they read the whole book entirely, there was a very redeeming Asian male character called Stephen. In fact, Stephen is one of the most beloved characters in the book and is the ONLY character liked by the character's parents. We know many Asian men who are cool enough to belt out a Celine Dion tune, funny enough to cheer you up when you need it most and sweet enough to move across the country for love. So, "Looney", if you haven't read that far into the novel, please do so. Some of us should also learn some etiquette when writing emails too, instead of just jotting down hate sentences and then sending them 15 times.



3. Another point that "Looney" brings up is that our book has several white characters, particularly Caucasian men. We're not sure if "Looney" has been living in another planet called Mercury or something for many years but the fact of the matter is that interracial dating in America, in the world, is evident and it is something that needs to be explored. Whether people believe in interracial dating or not, that is your own opinion. However, interracial is accepted in our society and is an issue in this world. Deal with it!

4. We had a discussion with Yul Kwon when we met him and he said the stereotypes that Asian men and women face are different. He even mentioned that Asian women probably deal with an extra layer of stereotypes in the work world or in dating because we always question people's motives or if they have one.

5. Most of you know that we are hard at work writing our second book and in the next one, we fight more of these stereotypes so hopefully most of you will enjoy it.

As for "Looney", we hope you are happy that we wrote this whole blog just for you. Thank you again for being such a supporter of "China Dolls".

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion