I am thrilled to
share this post with you about Linh and the Red Envelope. The author,
Diane Tran, is someone whom I’ve been able to call friend for over a decade.
She’s a world traveler, leader, project manager, German Marshall Fund of the
United Sates American Fellow, and overall inspiring friend, role model and
individual. I’m so proud of her newest title: author!
Alex Patrick Shimkus, illustrator.
Young Linh is excited
for the Vietnamese New Year. She puts on her áo dài (“ow yai”), a traditional
Vietnamese dress, and even puts a Vietnamese hat on Pinky, her stuffed animal
pig. Linh wants everything to go just right so that she and everyone in the
household will have good luck in the coming year. She also wants to earn her red
envelope with lucky money. But things don’t exactly go as expected. What will
Linh learn from her experiences?
One of the things I really
appreciate about this story is that the title character is Asian. As someone of
Asian descent, I’ve taken notice of the lack of Asian characters, not just as
main characters, but even as major supporting characters. I also really
appreciate the message of the story, because the message isn’t solely for kids
or exclusively for Asian Pacific Islanders. Life isn’t about only getting
things right, but about wanting to do them and being willing to learn them.
Tran has shown that she is a very capable writer. She writes a story based on
tradition that can be understood by young elementary-aged children with an
important message. And Shimkus creates accompanying illustrations that are
simple yet delightful and convey Tran’s words as pictures. Congratulations to
you both!
* * *
Diane, thank you for taking the time to
answer some questions! You have an impressive resumé. What is it like to add
“author” to your list?
Thanks for the
invitation to join you on the Reading Rutabaga, Lisa! I've really enjoyed your
insights here on different pieces of writing and literature, and consider it an
honor to be featured on your blog.
As an
experiential learner, one of my favorite things to do is to try things for the
first time. While I have blogged for several years, it has been a long-held dream of
mine to write a children's book, so it was an incredibly gratifying endeavor.
I'm especially excited because it's the kind of story—a young female Asian
protagonist relating to challenges that are at once universal and distinct to
her culture—that I never knew existed when I was young. I often wonder whether
and how things might have been different or easier for me if I'd had access to
these kinds of narratives when I was younger. And so I'm hopeful that this book
being out in the world now can make a positive difference for young children
today.
You wrote your story for the Reading
Together Project for a specific purpose: “to address the lack of children’s
books that speak to the experience of being an Asian Pacific Islander (API)
child or youth in the United States.” Especially for APIs, what kind of impact
do you think reading of API title characters will have on them? Do you think it
might have a creative or proud cultural impact?
I'm hopeful that
through getting to know Linh, her mom, and her grandmother, API children will
be able to see their own realities and experiences reflected back to them as
normal and significant. For API and other marginalized communities, the result
of not seeing others like you—your race, class, ability, immigration status,
faith, etc.—in literature, the media, or popular culture has the effect of
making you feel invisible. Unnoticed, unimportant. (Paradoxically, it can also
create the feeling of being overly exposed and in the spotlight in an undesired
way: When as the only different person in the room, you're looked at as the
"other" or presumed to be speaking for your entire ethnicity, gender,
etc.) And if there are characters that look like you,
they often times serve to portray stereotypes that are limiting and/or harmful.
This effectively reduces diverse populations to a single characteristic or
function, devoid of any further humanity. This under-representation and
mis-representation mirrors the way in which the dominant culture relates to or
experiences minority groups. And so, by creating our own narratives and sharing
our lived experiences, we can begin to see our realities as valid and
meaningful and in the process, and humanize ourselves and each other.
Can you tell us about the Reading
Together Project?
Funded by the
Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and created as a partnership between the
Minnesota Humanities Center and the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans
(CAPM), the Reading Together Project focuses on amplifying missing
narratives from the Asian American and Pacific Islander
communities, supports the development of English literacy skills while
recognizing cultural heritage, and creates opportunities for children and
families to learn about API cultural heritage together. Seeking to address
the lack of children’s books that speak to the experience of being an Asian
Pacific Islander (API) child or youth in the United States, the
project has published six children's books in recent years. In 2012, the
project produced two chapter books written for a third grade reading level, and
in 2013, four picture books written for a 1st - 3rd grade reading level were
published. My book was published in the most recent round, which
selected four writers and four illustrators through a competitive process and
allowed us to pair up and work collaboratively to develop the books.
A copy-editor helped provide clarity to and tighten up my original writing
submission, my book's illustrator, Alex Shimkus, brought the story to life with
vivid imagery and visual detail, and the project's layout editor and publisher
fashioned it into a 32-page paperback book. The whole process took nine months
from submission and selection to the book launch event in October, and was
exciting, challenging, and a lot of fun!
In Chinese and some other Asian cultures, red envelopes are given during holidays, such as the Lunar New Year, or to celebrate special occasions, including weddings, graduations, and the birth of a baby. Red envelopes usually contain money, though you may occasionally find candy or a proverb enclosed. Traditionally, red envelopes are given by married couples to the unmarried, who are typically younger and/or children. The red color signifies good luck and so my mom always tells me, the money you find inside is lucky!
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| Red envelopes |
In many ways,
this story is autobiographical. As a young girl growing up as the first
generation born in the United States to refugee parents, I struggled to know
how to be a "good daughter." In terms of my family and Asian culture,
I understood this to mean that I should respect my elders, help to clean the
house, and care for my siblings. As I navigated my school and community
surroundings, though, I found that there were other measures of success,
including academic ambition, student leadership, and civic engagement. While it
was clear to me that these were all important values and roles, in some ways it
felt like they were in conflict with one another. Pursuing too much of one or
the other might diminish my chances for public or professional success or
alternatively, move me further away from the heritage and traditions that felt
core to my identity.
I attempted
(with varying results) to balance the two, and over the years, I began to see
opportunities to apply my love for organizing and community building to
advocating for my family members and building a stronger sense of cohesion
within my family of origin as well as extended family. I supported my dad on
his journey to earning his citizenship and I leveraged my perspective as a
member of several marginalized communities to deepen policy discussions that
impacted those communities. What I came to see over time was that there was not
one "right" or "good"' way to care for those in my life,
but that my search to discover where my duties, strengths, and passions aligned
was part of my path to being fully myself - as a loving daughter and sister as
well as an engaged community leader.
Your main character, Linh, struggles to
know that goodness doesn’t come from doing things perfectly, but having a
willing spirit and wanting to do the right thing. How important is it to you to
get that message across to all children? That it isn’t about being perfect at
new things, but of wanting to do each thing and be willing to work at it?
My book's
dedication reads: "For every kid trying to do the right thing. Know that
you already are the right thing." While I think it is critical for
children to know and believe this, part of me wonders if it's really the kids
that we need to tell this to, or instead the adults. Children are full of
boundless energy and observations and curiosity. As adults, we have the
responsibility of rearing our children, nieces and nephews, and students so
that they respect themselves and each other, and can contribute positively to
this world. But in so doing, we may inadvertently relay to children
that we are the ones who know best for them and that they need to
behave or be a certain way in order to be acceptable. This poses a challenge to
children just as they are beginning to learn the important life skills of
trusting themselves and accepting themselves for who they are. So, I think I'd
offer messages to both children and their parents: Children, you don't have to
earn your role as someone's child, you already are. Parents, guide
your children lovingly, knowing that viewing your child as the gift that they
are allows them to fully trust and believe it.
Where can readers purchase your book?
The book is
available for purchase on Lulu.com. A free PDF copy of the book is available
online, along with an Educator Guide, in the Minnesota Humanities Center Absent Narratives Resource Collection.