Asian-Pacific American Literature

This week in our semester long discussion on multicultural literature we focused on Asian-Pacific American literature. I have really enjoyed learning about all the different classifications of multicultural literature. This specific genre of literature I have the least amount of knowledge on so I was eager to learn more about it. I thought that it was really cool the way that we started off class this week. We started off by viewing some stand up comedy by Margaret Cho. It was very entertaining and funny. During her standup she was poking fun at herself and also her mother. I thought it was good introduction to what we were focusing on this week. One big thing that I learned is actually how many countries are included, that I would have never thought, in the title of Asian-Pacific. Obviously Hawaii is included in this grouping, which I already knew, but because it is one of the 50 states it didn't come to my mind right away but I was reminded when I did the readings for the week.
I believe that this is one genre of literature that is the most under represented. When I look back on my educational careeer I can't really remember reading a lot of books by or about Asian-Pacific Americans. The only books I sort of remember had to do with WWII and I don't really know if they were good representations. By watching Margaret Cho it put it out there that there also isn't a big representation in the media. Yeah there are famous actors and actresses who are Asian-Pacific, but I can't think of one prime-time show that the main family unit or group of friends are Asian-Pacific. And then Margaret Cho mentioned in her comic performance that the producers of the show didn't think she was being "Asian" enough on her series, but then pulled her the opposite way by saying her face was too round. I thought that was ridiculous. I don't like how a lot of things are going on in Hollywood. Nobody is ever perfect as themselves there is always something to change about yourself and it really effects young children. I know I have been pulled into the nonsense of what Hollywood thinks the perfect body is.
This week opened my eyes to some new ideas to think about when it comes to multicultural literature especially when picking out my classroom library. I want to make sure to represent ALL cultures and do it successfully with credited authors.