Writing Diverse Cast

@Naomasa298 This is an interesting story. It is unfortunate Naomi Osaka receives criticism for being who she is. And being a child she had no control over the place she was raised in. I'm reading it was her parents' decision for her to represent Japan and she agrees with it because she cherishes her Japanese roots. I think this not what deserves criticism. She's brilliant and she cherishes her Japanese heritage.

This story reminds me about a similar situation with a short-track skater Victor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-soo) who was representing South Korea but moved to Russia because of difficulties with the skating federation in his homeland. Though Russian people reacted differently than Japanese and general audience supported him all the way even though he had no Russian heritage or relatives. Maybe this has something to do with Russian people generally being very accepting and even worshipping foreigners. This has everything to do with the Iron curtain. At the end of the USSR many people believed that life is better and grass is greener in any other country in the world. Those who never visited any country because of financial situation but long to travel still look at other countries through rosy glasses. My glasses shattered when I was abroad for the first time and visited Paris. I guess my expectations were too high.

This is a very deep and interesting theme. I guess maybe it's better explored by a person with relevant experience. But I agree that it's very powerful.

My Roma woman adopted a Korean child when she was far beyond her 40's. She adopted and raised another child first. And she left her Roma community shortly after she split with her husband when she was still young. So she was in the process of establishing her own community when she visited Korea. Her adopted son played a role of a big brother to this Korean child and helped to raise her.

Yes, most Russian-Korean people live there. That's where my roommate was from. But I also know people from Sochi, Rostov-on-Don (my hometown) and Cheboksary. So it's not hard to find them in any big city. Some of Korean dishes became wildly popular with Russians. For example, Korean spicy carrot salad is a thing. It is now sold in every supermarket.

 

We have to wait for Chinese Mandarin to become a widely spoken language. I already saw signs in Chinese in Russian airports.

 

Wow, thank you for these great resourses! I'll definitely check them out!

 

@Lina Lavender - Here is a link to a superb website I used when I was researching the history of the Romani people for my own (historical) novel. This is a particularly good site. It's written and produced by Roma for Roma. It's in English, but it deals with the Romani culture and people all over the world. It's no longer an active site, and has been archived, but the articles are all available to read.

https://www.oocities.org/~patrin/patrin.htm

 

This may be the right thing to do. But with Romani I guess I need to study more because these characters are pretty important in my story.

 

Thank you so much! This site must be very valuable!

 

I found it to be so.

 

I think it's a lot more common for Europeans to know other languages and cultures because Europe is made of so many small countries and many have their own languages and cultures.

America is vast compared to Eurpope, and it has one culture and one language. Well, aside from cultural differences from region to region or between working class and middle class etc, but those are minimal. In addition, our northern border is with Canada, which has the same culture and language we do. Well, except Quebec, which is French Canada—almost it's own country. It's only if you go to Mexico you run into a different language, and there English is largely spoken as well. If you live in the south of course, you'll encounter a lot of Mexicans and Hispanics, but not so many here in the middle of the country. America is almost like a world unto itself. Our states are like European countries.

 

Many thanks! I will definitely be spending some time there!

 

Continental Europeans maybe. I once sat next to an Italian guy in a casino, and he was effortlessly switching between, and carrying out simultaneous conversations in English, Italian and German.

I can speak 3 (and a bit) languages, but the last time I tried to switch between languages, it took me a moment each time to change mindsets.

 

I'm going to point something out here that you may want to consider.

Although I don't know Korea, I do know Japan, and certain attitudes are similar. A foreigner trying to adopt a Japanese child from Japan would find it VERY hard - they would be met with racism and prejudice - suspicions that the foreigner is not "suitable" to look after a Japanese child. It's not like certain countries in SE Asia, where foreigners are seen as the promised land. East Asians, even if they don't consciously think it or feel it, have a deeply ingrained cultural bias against foreigners (is the politest way I can put it).

I don't want to offend anyone, so I'll leave it at that.

 

Yes, I meant Continental, though the British Isles are a lot closer to Europe than America is.

 

Thank you so much! I understand your viewpoint. I generally enjoy research because I love learning new things. But sometimes research can also be used as an excuse to procrastinate.

 

@Naomasa298 - what you said about a foreigner adopting a Japanese child from Japan and East Asian's general attitude against foreigners reminded me of something. I know in Hong Kong, there seems to be this split between admiration and resentment against Caucasians - like it's a prestigious thing to have studied abroad in the UK, Australia or the US, and it's a mark of education to speak fluent English (though knowing English is pretty standard there - though with varying levels of fluency). But then you get someone like me, technically from Hong Kong, emigrated away at a young age - they have a term specifically for people like me, and I think it's kinda derogatory actually. Like I would think I'm somehow "better" than them, that I would call myself a "Hong Konger" and yet "don't speak Cantonese" (I still do, though obviously not exactly like a native anymore. I'm still proficient).

Anyway I can totally believe what you said about Japan. A Japanese friend I had in Prague, before she moved back home, would only buy eggs from the Japanese shop, never the local Czech shops. They also kept buying bottled water from shops rather than risk the tap water here. It's so odd. But inherent in the behaviour is a natural mistrust of foreign things, a certain superiority that Japanese products are better, more trustworthy. I have long had a theory that the Japanese government probably doesn't really want their people to learn English at least partly due to suspicion of foreigners - they want their people to stay in Japan, and a second language would give them the freedom to choose. None of my Japanese colleagues, when I worked at the Japanese school, said they wanted to go back to Japan. They went back out of some sense of duty and obligation, and because they didn't believe they'd be able to find a job in the Czech Republic (where I live). These people are teachers, so with the curriculum differences, they could be right - but I'll bet if they could speak one or two other languages fluently, they would have more choices.

I remember switching between Cantonese and English because I was translating for my husband. I don't need to pause to go between the two, but I did start mixing things up after a while - started speaking Cantonese to my Czech husband and English to my HK friend When I was a teenager, I had an English friend who loved to watch HK dramas. Back then, I don't think Asian TV was quite so available. Anyway, everything was in Cantonese and my friend would ask me to interpret. It got to the point where I was dreading it because we'd sit there for THREE HOURS and I'd be interpreting literally non-stop. I only very rarely paused the series to catch my breath.

There are so many interesting contradictions in your post! I've been led to believe that each state could be so vastly different in regional differences that they have their own distinct "culture", and I've had Americans tell me that's "like going to a different country." I've never been to the US and I have only a limited number of American friends, so I wonder how true is this? Do they compare it like that only because they haven't really ever got to know another nation well enough to realise how different things are, or is it truly "like another country" between states?

 

I think the Japanese attitude comes from a deep-seated belief in the "uniqueness" of Japanese culture. The Japanese don't really believe that foreigners can understand Japanese culture. This filters down to business as well - I sell certain Japanese products, and trying to get Japanese companies to understand that foreigners love and want their products is like talking to a brick wall. They just don't get it.

Foreigners who understand Japanese culture intimidate real Japanese people. An American friend of mine who lives in Japan told me a story about a Russian girl who had lived in Japan since she was a child. She acted completely Japanese, and obviously spoke completely fluent, colloquial Japanese. Now, you see a lot of characters like her in anime, and they're a staple. Usually, all the other characters are jealous of them for being blonde. But this girl was told by someone she knew that she was "kimochi warui", or "creepy", because although she acted Japanese, she didn't look Japanese. They couldn't put her into a neat little box and categorise her, so they didn't know how to deal with her.

I remember giving the same American friend a tour of the samurai museum in Shinjuku. Because Japanese history is my specialty, I was explaining all the exhibits to her. We'd tagged onto the end of a foreign tour group who were being shown round by the owner and you could see that he was scared of me. I think he was scared of being shown up in front of the other guests, or getting something wrong and having it pointed out to him, which would have been really shameful. When he knew something I didn't, his face kind of lit up as if "oh, I know something this foreigner doesn't, CHANCE!".

On a personal note, I love older Hong Kong wuxia series. I watch them dubbed in Thai, since I'm fluent in that language. I refuse to watch anything dubbed in English though, from any language. I do find, I can't process things when the subtitles don't match the dialogue. I watched the Thai film Bang Rajan with subtitles turned on for the Burmese dialogue, but half the subs didn't quite match the spoken Thai dialogue. My head hurt by the end. Sometimes happens to me with Japanese dialogue/English subs as well.

 

I watched HK wuxia dramas as a kid - thinking back, I sorta wonder if that's why I've retained probably more Chinese culture than my sister, despite the fact that she was 11 and I was 8 when we moved. She was a teenager already by the time we emigrated, so she never indulged on those Chinese dramas with us very much, whereas I often kept my mum company and watched TV with her. Now things are reverse - I listen to Japanese anime music on top of English stuff, and sometimes Mandarin stuff from my dad, but don't really watch TV at all. Whereas my sister has taken to watching Korean shows and dramas - in Korean - even though she doesn't speak the language at all lol. Subs are not always available for the shows she goes for I think.

The weird thing with me is, I often feel like Japanese is my adopted culture even though I'm definitely not Japanese and have never been to Japan I don't even know how that works. I know a surprising amount about it just from childhood anime and manga. I think those were the things I held onto when I first emigrated because as a child, the things that mattered to me were the cartoons, the snacks, the comic books - and the majority of that was Japanese. I also do origami. Unfortunately I don't speak Japanese, but I'd love to one day.

It's sad that the Russian-Japanese girl was called those names - I find the high conformist culture in Japan rather toxic. For all the things I love about it, I don't think I'd survive because by now it's actually become something that irritates me when someone insists there's only one way of doing things. Becoming too international would not fit well with the Japanese, as far as I know, which may also explain why the Japanese don't understand why foreigners would want their stuff. I mean, they don't want our stuff, right? They want their own, it's unique, it's theirs. So why should others want their stuff, right?

I wonder though what within the culture produces the reactions and behaviours that you describe regarding Japanese people being afraid of foreigners who know more about Japanese culture than them? It's an insecurity I actually have regarding English culture - I feel like I should be more English than I am and sometimes feel like an impostor, but given my background, you can understand why. But why would a Japanese person feel insecure about being Japanese in front of a foreigner?

Also, you speak Thai and a bit of Burmese? How did you come to learning such niche languages? I assume you speak Japanese considering your name and your stories about Japan.

Somehow what you said reminded me of this Steins:Gate clip - za mad scientist I've also seen another video making fun of how Japanese people seem to assume you can't speak Japanese unless you looked Japanese - however, I'm not sure how true that is?

 

I speak fluent Thai, as I lived there for a few years when I was quite young, and you pick up languages much more easily when you're young. I don't speak Japanese quite as well, but I'm comfortable in Japan. As long as I don't have to use keigo (humble speech) or have a conversation using specialist language (e.g. military matters), I'm fine. I used to translate anime for a sub group.

I don't speak Burmese at all, but I did recently discover I can understand Tai Lue (spoken in certain areas in southern China).

It's very true. More than once, in Japan I've said something to someone in Japanese only to have them look at me confused, then answer in (broken) English. That's in the areas where tourists aren't common. In more tourist-heavy areas, I've had the opposite reaction, where they've started to speak to me in English, I've replied in Japanese and their reaction is "Oh, thank god, you speak Japanese" (in Japanese, obviously). The third reaction you get is "Oh look, how sweet, the gaijin is trying to speak Japanese, let's humour him".

But it's also true that, and this is relevant to the OP - Japanese will assume you CAN speak Japanese if you look Japanese, and if you don't, you will be met with contempt. Brazilian-Japanese who immigrated back to Japan found it difficult or impossible to integrate into Japanese society, because although they looked Japanese, they were culturally South American. After encouraging them to come to Japan, the Japanese government ultimately paid many of them to go home.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack @Lina Lavender's thread too much. But it's an illustration of the difficulties that third-culture kids face, particularly those from insular cultures such as those in East Asia.

 

That's what I'm thinking. But bear in mind the only time I've visited another country was when my dad drove my sister and i across the border into Mexico once, and we didn't get past the touristy area right near the border. In fact, we went in a restaurant and my sister wanted to order because she had been studying Spanish. she said "Quatro Tacos por favor." The waiter said "Oh, ya want four tacos?" in a Brooklyn accent, though he looked Mexican.

So it's hard for me to gauge realistically.

But the same language is spoken in every state, the same currency used, all the same cultural references understood. The main differences are dialect and manner of speaking (by manner I mean mostly class differences I suspect—in the south for instance there's a very strong working class vibe going on).

I have been to several different states, and there was nothing remotely like culture shock. Wisconsin is far north, just on the border with Canada, and as i said, I was in Texas and visited Mexico. People are basically the same in all the states I've been in, and I had no trouble understanding what anyone meant or their culture. In fact the only major cultural differences I've witnessed I can see right here, between the upper middle class and the ghetto mentality (which is dispersed anywhere and everywhere, it's more a certain mindset and way of life than a place).

I suspect getting on the Metro and traveling through France, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic etc brings a much stronger sense of cultural changes. But like I say, I've never been there, so it's just a guess.

 

Yes, I've heard about the bias against foreigners some East Asian cultures have, particularly Japan. But I've also learned that Koreans immigrated to Russia, for example, in 1860, 1862, 1869, 1871, 1876, 1883 and during 1910—1945. These are the time periods that hold particar interest to me as my story takes place around the end of 19 th century. During these years Koreans experienced hunger, natural disasters and political turmoil. Also Japan threatened the country for years. Finally in 1897 it took full control over the country. Those who didn't like Japanese rule decided to flee Korea and side with Russians instead. For 100 years 0,5 million Russian-Koreans fully integrated into Russian society. So I doubt that they were so opposed to any foreigners. There are many other minorities in Russia that aren't integrated that good despite being a part of the country for longer time periods.

I've also learned about a category of enslaved people in Korea. They had some limited rights like owning a house. But they themselves could be bought and sold. They held a place similar to that of krepostnye (enslaved peasants) in Russia. So the parents of my Korean girl could be one of these people and they could've given were away for her to have a better life.

 

Ahhh, that's a rather important piece of information you didn't give us.

Culture back then had some significant differences to today.

 

Would you say most of Japan then would give you the confused reaction, or is it becoming more and more common that they would rather give you the "thank God you speak Japanese" reaction? I guess I'm interested in to what extent foreigners are truly integrated into Japanese society. I remember watching another video about a black Japanese man, and when asked if he felt any discrimination, he said no, not at all. I know I'm committing one of those sins of not listening to the experiences of the minority here, but I seriously find that very hard to believe. Happy to be corrected though - this is very interesting to me.

Why have you chosen to live in Japan? How accepted are you in Japan? Or do you mostly hang out in expats/international circles and not really the local Japanese circle? Where would you say is "home" for you, if you have one?

I know nothing of Rhode Island. You'll have to expand!

Yeah I figured the "states are like different countries" thing might have been from someone with an extremely narrow worldview - but I wanted to give her the benefit of a doubt lol.

@Lina Lavender - May I ask why did the Koreans choose Russia, as opposed to somewhere else, to flee from the Japanese? And yeah remember that if your story is set in that very period when the Koreans were coming into Russia, they may not have been so widely accepted.

It's an interesting thing that East Asians seem to be well-received almost everywhere. In England, there's a big Hong Konger minority, as well as those from Malaysia. In the Czech Republic, apparently we have the largest Vietnamese minority compared to anywhere else in the world, and like the Hong Kongers in the UK, the Vietnamese have integrated well here. In both cases, the parents have opened up businesses (in the UK they are restaurants and takeaways, in the CZ the Vietnamese open small grocery stores or "corner shops" as the Brits would call them). And in both cases, the parents usually didn't speak English and worked every day, while their children went to local schools and picked up the local language as native speakers. Generally very well-accepted in both cases. There's also a Japanese minority here in Prague specifically due to numerous Japanese car companies being based in CZ, and they are also well-regarded. So it's interesting to see Koreans are favoured in Russia as well. Sometimes I wonder if it's due to the culture of high work ethic as well as - certainly with the Chinese, can't speak for other nations - the tendency to save/hoard money, which means they don't send their kids to private schools and opt for the local stuff because they're free

This brings out another interesting point - even amongst the minority there're culturally differences. My parents speak fluent English and hold/held typical English jobs, and neither me nor my sister were made to continue in Chinese education. This is highly atypical in the UK it seems. My parents are also part of the Chinese minority community in the UK (my mum is a pastor of a Chinese church, most of whom don't speak any English - my mum often acts as their interpreter when members of her congregation need to see the doctor) - anyway, my parents often mention the little differences in mindset between themselves and the people they socialise with in the Chinese community. My parents chose to integrate fully into British society - that choice alone reflects a lot about their attitude vs their Chinese peers.

And it's probably no surprise both me and my sister ended up marrying international men. Mine's Czech but also a sort of third culture kid, and my sister's has 3 cultural heritages lol. I don't think I could have tolerated a very English man

 

I can't speak for most of Japan. I mostly hang around in Tokyo. The confused reaction is more common is more common in Tokyo, even, or perhaps especially around places where the Japanese are likely to encounter a lot of foreigners, like in airports.

In more rural parts, it's probably more common for people not to say anything until you speak to them first, and then they'll reply in Japanese as they don't speak any other language, not even high-school English.

No matter how well you speak Japanese, or no matter how culturally you act Japanese, as a foreigner, you will never BE Japanese. Foreigners still face a lot of discrimination. Even though it's illegal, there are shops and restaurants in Japan that still don't serve foreigners.

I don't live in Japan. I live in Yorkshire. As a tourist, I get treated better in Japan than I would as someone who lived there. People make allowances for tourists. But when I go there, I avoid the touristy areas, as well as avoiding other tourists.

 

Who could?

My ancestors declared war on them over tea taxes! (according to the stories of course)