My Correspondence with Tess Gerritsen

As an avid reader and an even more avid writer, I tend to thoroughly enjoy discussing the art of the written word. Last year (or was it this year?), I had the opportunity to write to one of my favourite, if not my favourite fiction writer Tess Gerritsen. She writes medical thrillers and in all my years of reading fiction, I cannot think of too many writers who produce better prose than she does. Her books are extremely well written, have plotlines that never stand still, and employ engaging and multi-dimensional characters.

When I wrote to Tess Gerritsen, I was certainly not expecting a response, since she is a New York Times bestselling author, and I imagine travels quite a bit to promote her books. However, a few days after I sent my email, I was pleasantly surprised to see a response from her in my e-mail box, and it was a fairly detailed response at that.

Tess Gerritsen, if you read her books, is of Asian ethnicity. That, of course, piques my interest, since I do not see many Asian in high profile arts and literature. In other fields like sports, we are seeing a few more Asians (particularly in baseball). On TV and in the movies, they usually cast the same old supporting characters (old, wise kung-fu masters or gangsters or nerds), and when they do feature Asians prominently, it is in a stereotypical role (ie. Jackie Chan or Jet Li doing martial arts). I would say that Daniel Dae Kim is probably one of the more versatile actors, being featured in the blockbuster TV series Lost, not to mention other movies and TV shows like 24. Also, Sandra Oh (Canadian girl of Asian background) has been in movies like Sideways and is one of the main characters on the TV show Grey's Anatomy.

I wrote Ms. Gerritsen about her seemingly lack of Asian characters in her books. Now, before you wonder where I am going with this, let me just say upfront that no, I do not believe that if you are Asian, that you are obligated to have Asian characters in your books. However, in knowing how few Asians are represented in books and film, and knowing that there are still age-old offensive (and not much offends me) stereotypes that float around (let's just say that the William Hung phenomenon on American Idol was not simply his lack of musical skill of which people poked fun), I would have always thought that if I ever get a book published, I would try to feature Asians prominently, and not like Joy Luck Club, which is still pretty stereotypical.

Her response is sincere and very interesting to note. She said that she thought about that idea for a long time and in doing studies on these things, has concluded that having Asian main characters will not help her sell books, since the mainstream society is still not ready for Asian main characters, and as a result would not buy books with prominently featured Asian protagonists. As she is a stay-at-home mom who writes books for a living, I can certainly appreciate why she needs to ensure that she continues to pull in an income (though as a New York Times bestselling author, I imagine she does pretty well financially). She did tell me that does consciously employ the occasional use of Asian characters in supporting roles or other character roles, which I have noticed. She also mentioned that she believes a large reason why many more Asian kids don't get into the literary arts is because of traditional parental pressure in Asian cultures. I think this is quite true. Many Asian parents are achievement-oriented, and as immigrants, want to see their child succeed, which in Asian terms, equates to earning a good pay. That is why you generally see Asian kids more often than not in fields such as the sciences and mathematics, both of which can lead to high paying scientific, medical, or engineering jobs in the future.

I'd also probably add that it is likely that while much of this has to do with economics and cultural pressure, there is no doubt a part of this that has to do with language as well. I have always thought that part of the reason why immigrant kids tend to go into science and math is because of the universality of the concepts behind these disciplines. As a result, knowing how to speak and write languages (ie. English) is not prerequisite that is prominent. As a result, you have fewer kids in language arts programs in universities and colleges and subsequently, fewer of them in journalism, writing, literary, and editorial careers.

Obviously, it is my hope to one day be able to be an instrument towards change in this area. I was not designed by God to work in a corporate office environment, as nice as some of the perks are. My natural giftings and skills are not in information technology management, as good as I believe I am in doing my job, and others have affirmed this. My passion is to write, I think that it is one of the few things I am actually good at doing, so hopefully one day I will be able to join the ranks of the Tess Gerritsens and be able to help reverse long-standing Asian stereotpes, and be an agent to encourage other Asian folks to explore the literary arts, exercising their natural gifts and abilities.