KABILIANA - Suzanne, can you tell us something about your childhood and your relationship with books? Were you a good reader?
SUZANNE - As a child, I loved reading. I read all the time. I remember reading at family gatherings, which was probably considered rude and antisocial, but no one stopped me. I lived in a small, conservative town in Michigan, yet because of books, my world was large.
KABILIANA - There were somebody in your family who was telling you tales?
SUZANNE - No one in my family told tales much, but my mother took my brother and me to the library from a very young age. Also, my mother always read to me before I went to bed. I believe that I owe my love of books to her.
KABILIANA - You are a very eclectic author, you write novels, short stories, children's and essays. What is the literary expression among these which better represents you?
SUZANNE - I like to think of myself as a novelist. I'm most passionate about writing fiction for young adults and adults, but I do enjoy other forms. I think that writing for children is very difficult.
KABILIANA - Suzanne you are an American living in Japan with your multicultural family. What did you find difficult in living in Japan and what you enjoy most?SUZANNE - In Japan, conformity is valued. I've heard over and over that Japan is a homogenous country, and it seems to me that the needs of minorities are often ignored. This can make things difficult for us, because our family is quite diverse. My son, especially, sometimes feels that he doesn't fit in, although he was born and is being raised in Japan, and has never lived anywhere else. I don't fit in either, but for me, my outsider status gives me a certain amount of freedom, which I like. No one expects me to fit in, so why bother trying?
KABILIANA - Playing for papa published in a bilingual edition (English-Spanish) by Topka Books and illustrated by Yuka Hamano, is your first illustrated book featuring a bicultural family in Japan. What inspired this story?
SUZANNE -Like the father in the story, my husband is a very busy high school baseball coach. My son asked me to write a story about playing baseball with his father, and Playing for Papa was the result. He wasn't overly thrilled with it at first, because it's mostly about a boy wanting to play baseball with his absent father, not about actually playing. Also, I was driven to write about a bicultural family much like my own so that my kids could find themselves in a book. There are very few books in Japanese about non-Japanese people in Japan. The United States is very diverse, but most picture books published in Japan seem to presuppose that everyone is the same, everyone has the same experiences and abilities. I can't think of a single Japanese picture book that features a child with a disability, or a child from another culture. And yet I know many children in Japan who have disabilties, and I know many children who have at least one foreign parent. At first, I thought a family like mine was too marginal, or too unusual to appeal to readers from different kinds of families, but then I started to read Allen Say's books. His family was also quite multicultural, and quite unusual, and yet his stories touch many people.Finally, the Japanese have a reputation for being xenophobic, yet imagine if they were exposed to diversity from a young age - if only in picture books.
KABILIANA - The story celebrates the love for what really matters for each child:sharing with parents, their time for playing, talking and listening ... How would you describe japaneese childhood in "your" Japan? And which differencies do you recognise from children rising in the US (also how differently spend their free time)?
SUZANNE - Japanese fathers tend to be very busy, which puts a lot of pressure on mothers. My own husband works seven days a week, sometimes twelve hours a day. Sometimes Japanese men live apart from their families, because it's too much of a hassle to move kids from school to school after a job transfer. I spent a lot of time with my father, and I think most American kids spend more time with their fathers than Japanese kids do. I think that a lot of Japanese men become estranged from their children, because they never see them. That's a huge difference. Japanese kids also spend a lot more time studying than American kids do. Academics are very important from a young age. I feel kind of sorry for them. I think it was Rudolf Steiner who said that play is children's work, and I agree. I'm always very happy when my children play imaginatively, or when they are outside in the fresh air using their bodies, but my Japanese husband frets that they aren't studying enough.
KABILIANA - The story is also on losing and I loved it. In modern societies children get easily the message that to be somebody they have to be the first, they have to win. Your story focuses on how losing sometimes can be worthy because it shows you the value of other things even more important. Did you want to convey also this message?
SUZANNE -Yes. In the United States, there is a saying: "It's not whether you win or lose that matters, but how well you play the game." I think that good sportmanship is more important than winning. And I think that the love and support of a family can always make us feel better at the worst of times.
KABILIANA - How are japaneese children related to reading books? Do they like reading? Do they have easy access to books?
SUZANNE - Japan is one of the most literate countries in the world, if not the most literate. Kids love to read here. There are lots of libraries and bookstores. Manga (Japanese comics) are very popular, but kids also read a lot of novels in original Japanese and in translation. Americans are notorious for not publishing and/or reading books in translation, but Japanese adults have access to many books from around the world. So although Japanese books tend not to show diversity, translations often provide a window to other cultures.
KABILIANA - Playing for Papa also feature on disability, children literature seems not very much interested in stories that focuses on this theme. What are the main reasons according to you?SUZANNE - There seem to be quite a few young adult books featuring disabled characters these days, which is heartening. And there are also some books "explaining" disablities, but there are very few children's books featuring kids with disabilies in more or less normal situations. I think many people don't like to think about disability because it seems depressing, or because they are afraid of disablity. But ignorance breeds contempt.
KABILIANA - Still today diversity, either we are talking about foreigners or disable or disadvanatged people, are seen as class B people. How is it possible to struggle prejudices and share the value of diversity?
SUZANNE- I think that if children - and adults - are regularly exposed to people with disabilties in books, movies, TV shows and real life, they will be more accepting and tolerant of those who are different. But I think they need to be exposed to people with diverse backgrounds engaged in ordinary activities. These days, there are a lot of Middle Eastern terrorists in American movies and on TV. Americans need to see more movies about ordinary Middle Easterners doing ordinary things.
KABILIANA - Suzanne you are mother of two children one with special needs. Special children need special parents, do you think that being creative and in your case, being a writer helped you in rising your children ?
SUZANNE - I think that writing about my feelings and experiences raising a child with special needs has helped me to make sense of them. From reading novels, we can develop empathy for people who are different from us. Writing from the point of view of a disabled character or a bicultural character, also helps me to empathize with my children. I think it's also good for them to see me writing. My daughter is just learning to write, but she often draws picture stories, where she is the heroine in a wheelchair. By example, I think I have taught them a way to express themselves.
KABILIANA - In which terms would you say diversity is a value?
SUZANNE - I didn't realize the importance of diversity quite so much before I came to Japan. Here, where everyone is taught to think and act alike, I can see that lack of diversity leads to narrow mindedness and a lack of imagination. We have learned many things from my daughter Lilia. My son is a kind, sensitive person, perhaps because he has been brought up with a deaf sister who uses a wheelchair. He is interested in other cultures. I think that diversity makes us more curious.
KABILIANA - I liked when you said that motherhood, which supposed to be a very busy role, has increased your creative work and the more you became busy rising two children the more you're committed in writing. How would you explain this to those worried mums aspiring writers who thinks that they cannot make it?
SUZANNE - I think that if a person really wants to write, she will find the time. You can write anywhere. There's a lot of waiting time in motherhood - waiting for kids to finish soccer practice, waiting for dance lessons to be over, waiting for the pot to boil - and you can use those ten or fifteen minutes to dash off a page. The other great thing about motherhood is that it provides a lot of material. My children are my greatest muses.
KABILIANA - Will you continue writing for children?
SUZANNE - Yes, definitely! I've got some stories cooking.
KABILIANA - Next May your new anthology Call me Okaasan will be issued. It is a collection of stories written by authors on their experience as expat parents. Without anticipating much of the book (I'll interview later on this) can you use 5 adjectives to describe how is rising children between cultures as an expat with a multicultural family?
SUZANNE - Interesting, surprising, challenging, perplexing, fun.
In occasion of the release of Suzanne's
Call me Okaasan, we'll be interviewing Suzanne and other expat authors on how is rising children oversease.
Posts
