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RE the last thread (yes, it's been a while, busy otherwise!)
I spent a lot of time thinking I wasn't legitimate to write Vietnamese culture into SFF--I'm diaspora and mixed-race and that creates its own set of fraught (1/?)
I spent a lot of time thinking I wasn't legitimate to write Vietnamese culture into SFF--I'm diaspora and mixed-race and that creates its own set of fraught (1/?)
Specifically, the utter certainty that as diaspora I am less than someone living in Vietnam, and that this makes me unfit. I know I'm not the only one having those anxieties (2/?)
And I've had multiple conversations with friends (waves @rcloenenruiz @jeannette_ng and others), and the conclusion I came to is that I'm not. I'm just different. (3/?)
I will never have the point of view of someone living in Vietnam. My relationship with the country, with its history, is bound to be different from someone whose parents never left. But it doesn't make it invalid or lesser. (4/?)
I have biases, and it's good to be aware of them--but equally those biases and opinions form a large part of what I write, which means that while writing, I need to strive to not propagate harmful stereotypes, to not erase people. But that's the same as everyone. (5/?)
There's nothing that makes me inherently invalid or inherently unsuited to do what I do, or my work less worthy. It's like... there's nothing lesser or wrong about Vietnamese-French food. It just is. But it can be very hard to remember that. (6/?)
There's all sorts of issues that I'm not trying to elude--like power differentials, the fact I live in the West, etc, etc. But these aren't, er, invalidating characteristics. (7/?)
Anyway, diaspora feels, all the way. And to everyone who is diaspora: I see you and you are valid.
(8/8)
(8/8)
