My original proposed topic for this blog post was "Asian Snow Myths." I thought with the recent snowfall, it would be fun (and perhaps useful for my own writing) to research eastern snow myths and compare to western versions.

I drew blanks researching online and throughout my book collection, but I didn't panic. I just sent off a quick e-mail off to my mother, who had never failed to give me bits of odd Asian folklore before. And better yet, I knew she was visiting our relatives in Taiwan. In the slight chance she didn't have any some snow myths to share, I was sure my grandmother or one of my various aunts or uncles would. But to my dismay, her e-mail reply went like this:

Taiwan is very warm, it is about 80F now. There is no snow all year round. We don't know any snow stories.


Ugh! Of course! And I was kicking myself as I found myself guilty of the easy mistake that any author of multicultural stories, fantasy or not, can make. Assumptions.

Making assumptions is particularly treacherous when writing multicultural fantasy. An author wants to make fantasy feel authentic to the culture they are nodding to, yet still build a world that takes a reader away from reality.

Achieving the latter is often done subtlety--sometimes using symbols that can evoke certain emotions in a reader. But these symbols must be used thoughtfully. For example, consider this sentence (which I edited out of my book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon):

Black magpies gathered, making a shadowy ribbon in the sky.

What feeling does that convey to you?

To western sensibilities, this might seem an ominous foreshadowing of doom and trouble. Magpies are symbols of bad luck, European folklore often associates magpies with bad omens or stealing things.

However, in Asia, the magpie is a symbol of happiness, hospitality and love. In fact, Chinese Valentine's Day is based on the myth that the magpies make a bridge in the sky so that two lovers can meet.

So while I wanted to use the gathering of magpies as an authentic symbolic description to convey happiness, I knew that might be misinterpreted by the reader. It might create a mood of dread, instead of the joy I wished.

Or consider this:

The owl looked down at Mei-lin, his eyes meeting hers. He dropped four seeds from the tree.

This is a scene that would probably convey a sense of hope for a western reader. Here, owls are considered wise, all-knowing--the owl is probably going to help Mei-lin right?

But to a discerning eastern reader, this would be a foreshadowing of trouble and dread. Owls are terrible creatures in Asian mythology, symbolizing savagery and ill-fortune. Plus the four seeds! To a western reader, this might be glanced over--but to a Chinese reader they would be on alert. The number 4 (like the number 13, here) is considered very unlucky.

And this, the assumption that symbolic meanings translate across cultures, would be an egregious mistake when writing a multicultural story.

And this is also where writing a multicultural fantasy is even more rigid than a multicultural contemporary novel. So much of fantasy is based on myth, folklore and legends and when one decides to include an authentic cultural homage, world-building freedom becomes limited. Symbols are important and should most definitely be used, but it is a mistake to use them without regard to the culture you are writing about.

But I hope this doesn't discourage you from writing multicultural fantasy, yourself! This post is just a reminder to be aware, be thoughtful of the culture your story adopts. Writing a fantasy with an adopted culture can feel confining, but those limits can also help build a structure for an incredibly memorable story that can surprise and enrich a reader beyond their expectations, as well as your own.

I wish a gathering of magpies over your writing desk!