Shweta Ganesh Kumar shared with me this TED Talk from novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about how "a single story" about another person or country can cause critical misunderstanding, and I felt that the talk really reflected why I started this blog. Please watch it below, if you haven't already: I sometimes teach creative writing to children and teens and have been very shocked to see that the first impulse of my students - all Filipinos or Chinese Filipinos ages 11-15 - is to write stories featuring characters with blond hair and blue eyes. It seems that, like the seven-year-old Adichie, my students have "a single story" about what literature is and do not think that people like them can exist in literature. (Needless to say, I am now trying to expose my students to more Filipino literature and literature from other Asian countries.) I blog because our students, nieces and nephews, children, grandchildren, and godchildren NEED AND DESERVE more than "a ...
Thanks for sharing this, Tarie. The ReaderCon memes reminded me of how important libraries are. This is such a worthy cause.
ReplyDeleteIt is! ~^o^~
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog and I'm so glad that I can now be more informed about Asian, especially children's lit. I'm homeschooling my daughter and we are using a literature-based curriculum. We are reading classic children's books but I wish to supplement with more Filipino books. Our favorite Filipino author is Jomike Tejido and I'm excited to get to know other authors!
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