model minority got people ignoring me, me
Oh hey, it's February.
I have a fever right now so I don't know if I would hold on to anything in here (if I end up posting it) as something I would still think when my head is, like, not all blurry and foggy and shit. But also I don't trust myself to do purchase orders at work when my brain is not braining, so I'm catching up with industry news and writing this instead.
To maybe no one's surprise, I read less last year than I ever had before, and I don't really plan for that to change this year. I don't remember the first year that I started to read significantly less than usual - the usual back then being around 400 books a year, only a quarter of which were comics, which then became about 300 books, half of which were comics. I was puzzling over the lack of reading when a friend rightly pointed out the fact that I was doing a shitload of writing that year. It was the year I was churning out fanfic after fanfic for the tsunami relief fund, and writing other fic on top of that on a regular basis. At least 2-4 times that year I wrote a 20k word one-shot in a single sitting the morning before leaving for work. Ah, the good old days, when I could leave for work 20 minutes before work started!
I haven't been writing fanfiction in a long time. I tried to get back into it years ago, entering a contest here and there (and winning CD Japan vouchers, yay!), but I think I was a little burned out. That, and the fact that none of the fandoms that held the majority of my attention were the sort I'd read or write fic for. I don't read/write fic for bookish fandoms, or live action shows - only anime series, and Arashi. Things that I haven't had much new content for in a long time (I don't even know what's the status of the Prince of Tennis fandom now, and am afraid to check.) So. No new fanfic. But - I have been writing. A lot. It's even part of why I haven't been putting out many newsletters.
I don't know if "writing" is the right word? I've been rewriting a lot of adventures to suit the stories I'm telling in my D&D games, and I've been spending a lot of time worldbuilding and thinking about mechanics and plotting future events and I guess at least a small part of that is writing. It's a very different kind of writing, and it's interesting to me, especially when I compare it to fic writing, because my fanfic have always been character-driven and it's all about the emotional arcs, but with D&D it's the complete opposite. I mean, my favourite thing about D&D is the emotional component, and the characters, but in a collaborative game I don't really have a say over that bit, that is the players' part, and as a DM I am only creative the space for them to tell their characters' stories. And so I'm focusing more on worldbuilding and creating narrative hooks that they may or may not want to take a bite off I can't predict the end result, and it's just really fascinating to think about.
Lately I've been listening to a lot of Asians Represent podcast again so I've just been pulling apart most of the media I consume, and read articles about. And yeah, the stuff I enjoy aren't exempt from this.
This morning I listened to an episode about Strixhaven (a Magic: the Gathering setting) and racial stereotypes and the model minority myth, and even though these aren't really stereotypes that affect me personally (growing up in Southeast Asia, instead of North America) I get why parts of Strixhaven is really problematic through that lens. It's like, if I look at the early release Strixhaven lore by itself, it's just full of stereotypes (especially when it comes to Killian/Embrose Lu, with the whole model minority, "family honor", "tiger parent", etcetc.)
I think I forget, because I've been running Strixhaven in a totally different way - Killian is only one of many Asians in my version of Strixhaven, so his character doesn't bear the burden of having to represent a whole race, for one. And then there's the fact that since the first Strixhaven announcement, WotC's added more Asian characters to the lore, and expanded Killian's character in their Strixhaven short stories so that he's a proper, more nuanced individual, rather than just a bundle of stereotypes dumped into a kinda hot body.
And, ugh, I just did a bunch of excel spreadsheets before continuing this and have lost my train of thought, and also suddenly want to read a bunch of papers I've apparently looked up about acculturation and about cultural identity through diaspora and... I don't know, maybe I should like go back to school just so that I can have people to talk about these stuff with instead of ranting in newsletters, but while having the excuse to read all the papers I want to read anyway is nice I don't exactly have the time to do all the writing that going back to school would entail.
So yes, if you are wondering where my brain is at lately, there you have it, although yes this is more like my brain on fever maybe if you take away the fever it'll be more coherent or just 50% more D&D.
You know what's weird? I'm checking my work email and I just received a review request (as in, I didn't ask to read the book, but some random marketing person from some publisher thought I might want to read and review it and therefore asked me to do so) for a book that isn't in my current genre at all and I was wondering why, then I saw that it's about "the model minority myth" and "contending with mental illness" and okay this sounds like I'm the right person to review it but also I do not have the time, I haven't even finished the book I am currently reviewing (which is a YA thriller about systemic oppression and rape culture).
Why can't I just have all the time in the world to read things and over analyze them to bits? //cries in first world problems//
The title of this newsletter are lyrics to the song "Model Minority" by Alan Z and Jason Chu (but is specifically from Dante Basco's part, cuz he is Prince Zuko and Rufio!)
Now go drink water! Don't get sick like I did!