More Korean Connections

At her invitation, I joined my friend, Dr. Agnes Ahn, one of the founders and program coordinators of the Korea Studies Workshop at University of MA Lowell, for a whirlwind trip to Philadelphia this weekend.

Agnes and I keynoted at the National Association of Korean Schools, Mid-Atlantic Chapter meeting. We each shared an overview of our life stories and our work: on Agnes' mission to get Korea and Korean history into the Common Core, and on my book, The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea,

 as a tool to explore Korean history, culture and positive bicultural identity.

We had a warm and enthusiastic response from this delightful group of people - and a delicious Korean box lunch before we were whisked back to the airport to fly back to Boston.

Fierce Girls

Three recent graphic novels feature feisty girl protagonists whose ethnic identity places them on the margins of mainstream society, yet whose life questions, personal challenges and eventual triumphs will be recognizable to young people of any background.

Anya, the protagonist of Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, is a teenager of Russian descent trying to fit in at her American high school and catch the attention of her heartthrob, when she falls into a well in a park and meets the ghost of a long-dead girl. This beautifully-drawn and suspenseful novel, told completely in dialogue and images, adds a thriller mystery plot and a be-careful-what-you-wish-for theme to typical teen concerns of identity, popularity and finding one's place. "I don't know if I'll ever be the same after that fall," Anya tells the school principal at the story's close.


Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch (with the irresistible tag line: "Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl")  is set in an Orthodox community in a fantasy world complete with witches, trolls and talking pigs. (As bizarre as this sounds, the author-illustrator's confident narration allows the reader to suspend disbelief.) Mirka must contend with
realities like missing her dead mother and the tedium of learning how to knit while keeping alive her dream of being a dragon-fighting hero, all without being late for Shabbos. Along the way, the reader is introduced to Yiddish vocabulary, Jewish traditions, and Orthodox society.


The star of Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary (written by Keshni Kashyap and illustrated by Mari Araki)
explains on the opening page that her diary is "a class project for (her) English Honors elective in existential philosophy... the whole point being to figure out who you are and who you are becoming." Tina, a first generation Indian-American 10th grader at an independent school in California, describes herself as "a pretty good student. A decent violin player. And a bit of an intellectual." Her year of existential analysis of her own life is full of opportunities to explore what it means to be Indian and American, a daughter, a friend, a possible girlfriend, an actor and a girl finding her own voice.

Drawing Race

The day after the election, I spent the afternoon at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, as a guest in the drawing workshop taught by Stephen Bissette. Steve had invited me to teach a class on drawing ethnicity and race.

At the time I scheduled the gig, I hadn't actually processed the fact that November 5 was the day after that November 4. I was a bit tired the morning after. But the timing was perfect.

Much commentary during Obama's candidacy and since his election has considered the question of whether our nation is entering a post-racial era, with a number of commentators stating outright that we've arrived at such a milestone. I think they're skipping over a few stages. My view is that we are becoming a society with a conscious awareness of our multiracial identity. Examining how to do that in comics was an ideal way to spend the day after the election.

I talked about moving towards a big vision: authentic, respectful, recognizable depictions of the glorious diversity of humankind. (Of course one of the hallmarks of comics is making fun, but the skewering shouldn't be based on racial and ethnic characteristics or stereotypes.)

This means that Caucasian can no longer be the sole reference point. All too often in comics and graphic novels, the normative characters are all white. Non-white characters are defined by their difference from the norm, such as darker skin or differently-shaped eyes. In this model, some characters are depicted simply by race: the balding man with the paunch, the Goth chick with pointy glasses, the black guy. But race alone does not give you a full person. Every character of every race should be developed as an individual.

Students shared the results of an exercise I'd assigned: Find a comic artist who draws characters of more than one race. Make sketches of the characters, examining what the artist is doing. It was fascinating to see the wide range of techniques for effectively describing racial and ethnic variety.

I also got to make some of my own recommendations, such as graphic novelists Gene Yang (American Born Chinese), Derek Kim, Jillian Tamaki (Skim by Mariko Tamaki, which just made the New York Times Best Illustrated list) and Shaun Tan. Tan's exquisite and moving wordless picture book about immigration, The Arrival, is my current favorite book. The endpapers alone provide an entire course in depicting race and ethnicity.

In younger picture books, I love the multicolored children drawn by Le Uyen Pham, Jon Muth (Come On, Rain by Karen Hesse), and Sheila Hamanaka (All the Colors of the Earth), among many others. Aren't we humans gorgeous?!