One of the frequently asked questions I get about Possess is “Why did you choose to write a non-Caucasian main character?” And since this is the Diversity in YA blog, I thought this was the perfect forum to address the topic.
It all goes back to the beginning, the plot bunny for Possess: teen exorcist. Something about that subject matter just screamed out to be set in my hometown of San Francisco — the fog-blanketed streets, the murkiness of late fall, the oldness of the city, the Catholic heritage. Fantastic! I hold a special place in my heart for the city, especially the neighborhood in which I set the majority of the novel. Even the homes I describe in the book are part of me — my grandmother’s house, my aunt and uncle’s house. My San Francisco.
And if I was going to write about “my San Francisco,” I wanted it to look the way it did in my experience. And that is decidedly not white.
I grew up in suburb of the city and my high school was 40% Asian. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Taiwanese. There was a tremendous range of diversity just within the Asian community. I grew up surrounded by all different types of Asian culture, so much so that I never considered any of my non-white friends to be a minority. Because in my world, they weren’t.
For example, my close-knit group of friends looked like this: Chinese, Chinese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Armenian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic, Filipino/Irish, and three white kids — one a mutt, one Jewish, and me, the Irish Catholic girl.
So I wanted the San Francisco of Possess to reflect the San Francisco I know and love. Bridget Liu — half Irish, half Chinese — raised Catholic.
The funny thing is that some of my Asian friends from home kind of looked at me askew when I talked about Bridget. One friend said that she didn’t know any Chinese Catholics. Another said she didn’t know any biracial Chinese like that. Funnily enough, I know plenty of both. It’s all about frame of reference.
I’ve also had some pushback in regards to Bridget’s Asian heritage. In the book, it’s not something Bridget mentions, and I had a reader or two early on comment that Bridget should be more inquisitive about and referential of her Chinese roots.
My argument here is that the Chinese side of Bridget’s family has been in the United States longer than her Irish side. This, too, isn’t uncommon in San Francisco, where Chinese immigration to the area was in full swing by the mid-19th century. Heck, my family didn’t immigrate to the U.S. until 1906! So Bridget doesn’t really feel a connection to China, or Ireland for that matter. Once again, frame of reference.
In the end, the greatest contribution to color blindness I could make with Possess was to treat Bridget as…Bridget. A fifteen-year-old Catholic high school student who just happens to be half-Chinese and can exorcise demons. That’s it. She is who she is. And I wouldn’t have her any other way.
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