Last edited Oct 18, 2019.
Important follow-up statement about speaking up, allyship, and libel: After you read the blogpost, please read this final follow-up tweet thread: https://twitter.com/yilinwriter/status/1023441797140307968.
Summary:
As a young Chinese Canadian woman, writer, editor, and translator, I was one of the witnesses to a racist incident at a Vancouver book sale in January, which continues to affect me months later. After staying relatively silent about this on public social media, I finally posted a public statement on Facebook and Twitter in April to raise awareness about the challenges faced by Chinese Canadians, people of color, and women in #CanLit and publishing. I want to call for everyone to create safe spaces for all marginalized writers and intervene when you witness racism.
The incident:
At a warehouse book sale co-hosted by two local bookstore owners, Patricia Massy of Massy Books, and B, I witnessed B, an elderly white man, making racist comments about Chinese poets and the Chinese language in front of a staff member at Massy Books and a local literary series organizer who worked with B.
B complained that at a local multilingual reading series, World Poetry, a Chinese poet read in Chinese for ten minutes. He did a very mocking and offensive imitation of the poetry reading, saying words like “Ching Chang Chong” loudly. B did not stop until finally, Patricia Massy intervened, upon seeing I was upset and leaving the book sale. While I was leaving, he said something like “I’m sorry if my words offended you”, but the apology was not sincere or meaningful. (You can read Patricia Massy’s supporting statement on Facebook.)
I found out later B is an online bookstore owner, a retired library studies professor, a local literary events organizer, and a current and past board or committee member of several literary, publishing, or library organizations. B is a gatekeeper in the literary and publishing community.
His disrespectful words reflect the larger prejudice and barriers faced by Chinese Canadians, writers of color, and women in publishing. His actions came across as mockery and disrespect for the writing and work of all Chinese Canadian and Chinese writers.
The Aftermath:
I had to talk with friends at Room Magazine after discovering that B had attended an issue launch that I co-hosted prior to the incident and might attend future events. My editorial team at Ricepaper Magazine had to pull out of a planned event with the local literary organizer who was speaking with B at the book sale. [I have since resigned from Ricepaper due to some of the team members handling the aftermath very poorly. See update at the end.]
In the months after, multiple literary groups and writers contacted B for a public apology. B offered an apology to World Poetry’s organizer and to me, but denies ever making fun of Chinese poets or the language. After three months, I realized it’s clear that he won’t take responsibility. I continue to struggle with feeling unsafe at literary events and spaces in Vancouver.
I’m grateful for support from the help and advice of friends and writers like Shazia Hafiz Ramji from Canadian Women in Literary Arts, Elaine Woo, Amanda Reaume, Meagan Black, Jonina Kirton [support statement], Phoebe Wang, Jen Sookfong Lee, Tom Cho, Chelene Knight, and many others who spoke to me, reached out, and wrote letters and statements of support. I am also grateful for the support of Room, Augur, and LooseLeaf Magazine/Project 40 Collective as well as other literary organizations and editors who reached out. Thank you to all my friends who stood beside me while I struggled to deal with the aftermath of this.
I want to call for everyone in the literary community to think about ways to make all spaces safer for Chinese Canadians and all marginalized groups. Please intervene when you witness racism. Stop these types of incidents from ever happening again.
Why I didn’t confront B at the event and can’t name B:
After my statement was reposted by a publication, I received a very insensitive and inconsiderate message from someone who tried to blame me for not speaking up directly to B and name B. I don’t feel I have to explain this but here are some reasons:
- Because B is in a position of power and I felt unsafe. He has affiliations with organizations and institutions that I am connected to.
- Because in the past two years, in different community spaces, I have had to deal with insensitive comments when it comes to race and gender over and over again. I’m exhausted that I have to always be the one to try to fix the problem.
- Because of fear of damage to my career and harm to the people who help me.
- Because I have spoken up in the past before around similar situations and got shut down.
- Because if you always speak up, you become known as the person who is always angry and easily offended.
- Because I have been warned to not name B publicly without consulting lawyers first to protect myself and people who have helped.
- Because this is not really about B and what he did, but larger problems in publishing and the society as a whole.
Here are some specific things you can do to support:
1. Have an explicit no-tolerance for discrimination and harassment policy for all events and spaces. Post it clearly at the event and in the programming space.
2. Make space for Chinese Canadian writers, BIPOC writers, and other marginalized groups. Center their voices. Feature them at events. Make sure they are heard.
3. Learn about how to be a good anti-racist bystander. When I witnessed racism, only Patricia from Massy Books stepped in. No one else did.
4. Make sure staff and organizers at events and spaces are aware that they need to intervene if they witness something. Have a plan because things will very likely happen. Consult people about this plan and be a better bystander.
5. There needs to be education, awareness, and recognition that OTHER LITERARY TRADITIONS exist outside of white mainstream #CanLit. Many great Chinese writers live in Canada and write in Chinese and/or English. Their work needs to be recognized.
6. Mocking Chinese poets and the language comes from ignorance and reflects a larger inability to appreciate other literary traditions, languages, and cultures. Go out and read some books by Chinese Canadians and Chinese writers (they are not the same by the way). Support translators.
7. Editors, when you read and choose submissions, consider literary traditions outside of “typical” #CanLit that you may be familiar with. Publish work influenced by a range of literary traditions. Publish translations. Don’t reject work just because it’s not what you are used to.
8. Gatekeepers and members of the Canadian literary community, please don’t only watch out for racism in public, but also behind closed doors. It scares me to think what kind of racist comments might be uttered behind closed doors after witnessing it at a book sale. Systematic changes are needed at every level.
Conversations are ongoing on Twitter with the hashtag #RacismInCanLit. You can find me on Twitter @yilinwriter.
Ricepaper Update: A shorter and earlier version of my statement “Racism in #CanLIt” was posted on Ricepaper, where I was Poetry Editor for 1 year and an Editorial Board member for about 2 years when it was in print. However, since May 2, 2018, I have handed in a resignation from my position at Ricepaper, with an official departure on May 31st, due to my concern about how an insensitive response to my statement was being handled by some of the team and how I was being left out of conversations. Therefore, any follow-up statement, action, or information shared by Ricepaper (or affiliated organizations Literasian and Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop) no longer reflects my views. I do not support any of their work or projects. Per my request on June 2nd, Ricepaper has removed the excerpt from my statement published on their website, and my name from their masthead. Two friends have resigned from Ricepaper with me to show support and I am very grateful for their stance.
Donor update (on Twitter): A very beautiful thing that happened from all of this is three new literary prizes started by a major arts donor Rahim Ladha (@RMNarrative), including one for QT2S/BIPOC writers in Canada (sparked by my statement and the #racismincanlit conversation). For more info about all three awards, visit here: https://shootforthemoon.art/spark. It is all Rahim’s work and I am in conversations with him about how to support and build on his work moving forward.
#RacismInCanLit in the news: Thank you very much to Rahim and everyone who has contributed to the #RacismInCanLit conversation. You can read interviews with Rahim about #RacismInCanLit in Quill and Quire, Carte Blanche, and CBC Books.
Uplifting other voices: I would like to take this opportunity to center the voices of marginalized writers. I made a list of writers and publications you should consider supporting on Twitter here, and encourage everyone to add to this list. A more centralized list is forthcoming on this page.
Dear Yilin, I am so sorry and horrified about the racism you experienced at the World Poetry event and applaud you for taking proactive action and steps to address this systemic racism within CanLit and the publishing world against ethic minorities.
I myself have struggled with being excluded from being seriously considered for publication due to my mental illness. There is a perception that so-called disability arts, although
well-meaning and socially significant, lacks artistic merit.
I submitted a manuscript entitled “Piñata of Love” for consideration for the ACWW Jim Wong Chu Emerging Writers Award this year. The work is essentially a love story set in Mexico which examines the machismo, sexism and chauvinism of womanizers, from a non-judgemental point of view. I am aware and recognize the position of male privilege I have as a writer of Asian Canadian descent. However, I struggle with the possibility of being criticized and condemned for writing from a patriarchal point-of-view. The world of seduction of womanizers is complex for there is a dance between mutual consent and manipulation between the seducer and the seduced. The binary relationship between men and women is complex and not back and white. This grey zone is what I attempt to navigate and explore in this work. I hope this work won’t be dismissed or condemned for its “political incorrect” characters’ perspectives but will be considered for its literary merit or not. As Walt Whitman said: “Within us lies multitudes.”
Thank you for your courage for breaking the silence and speaking up about racism and raising awareness and expanding the conversation between “us” and “them.” By speaking up you are not only calling a spade a spade but also educating people and hope for change and growth from outmoded biases.
Thank you,
In gratitude and solidarity,
Kagan Goh
I write this as a letter of support for my dear friend and colleague Yilin Wang. I first met Yilin two years ago when she joined the Room Magazine Editorial Board. She is one of our hardest working members, taking on projects like the volunteer coordination for Growing Room Festival in 2018. She is also an active member of our Equity and Inclusion Committee. I too am a member of that committee and can speak to her commitment to the work we are doing in that area.
Most of us know all too well that the CanLit world offers few soft spots for BI&POC and others who are marginalized to land, but with Yilin, and the other Equity and Inclusion committee members assistance, Room has been consistently raising the bar by making space for those who have been historically excluded. Yilin has been an important part of this work which is why it deeply saddens me to see her pay the price for speaking up about a recent incident that involved a white male bookseller that I shall not name.
Firstly, I know and trust Yilin when she says this bookseller made it hard for her to be at an event when he started speaking in a Chinese accent, mimicking the language. I was not there but have spoken with her and with others who were, and they not only confirm the incident but also that they had asked the bookseller to leave. In an ideal world this bookseller would have offered Yilin and her community a full-throated apology, but it is my understanding that what came was forced and very watered down so in a sense added further insult to her injury. Had there been an apology that felt sincere things would have ended there but clearly more needed to happen.
Yilin turned to social media and to Ricepaper’s newsletter where she offered some brief details (no names) re what had taken place and she asked for those in the CanLit world to remain vigilant in their understanding of racism and in their offers of support for those who find themselves on the other end of such demeaning behaviour. To my thinking this was the right thing to do and yet she has paid a dear price for this. She recently had this to say about what transpired next:
“However, since May 2, 2018, I have handed in a resignation from my position at Ricepaper, with an official departure on May 31st, due to my concern about how an insensitive response to my statement was being handled by some of the team and how I was being left out of conversations. Therefore, any follow-up statement, action, or information shared by Ricepaper no longer reflects my views.”
I write this letter of support, not as a Room editorial board member but as a friend and colleague of Yilin’s who values her friendship and her contributions to Room Magazine and the CanLit world.
All my Relations
Jonina Kirton