COUPEVILLE, Wash. — Jing Jing Tsong's new book has an unusual title.
“My book is called Fake Chinese Sounds,” explained the artist and writer from her Whidbey Island studio. Unfortunately, the name is not so unusual when you learn what it means.
"I heard a lot of fake Chinese sounds growing up from people,” Tsong said. "So, it was a kind of way that kids and adults used to make me feel bad, or like to tease me, or even people would use it joking in friendly conversation, but it was always incredibly offensive to me."
Her graphic novel shows what racism feels like in vivid detail when her main character, a fifth-grade Taiwanese American girl named Mei Ying, is bullied by a classmate who uses ‘fake Chinese sounds’ to tease her. It also slips into everyday conversations, like when an adult uses the phrase "Oriental grace" (and Mei Ying thinks ‘Oriental grace’? EWWW.).
"I'm really hoping that there will be more conversations about how we hurt people in little ways unintentionally, like, we might think we're joking, but it's not a joke to someone else," Tsong explained.
Some parts of the book are based on the real life experiences in the author’s family, like when Mei Ying’s mother remembers a sign taped to a window at the college where she teaches.
“Someone tapes a sign to outside her laboratory door that says, 'Go back to where you came from,'" Tsong said. "That's directly from my dad's experience teaching at a college in Pennsylvania.”
This coming-of-age story is also about the importance of friends and family. Tsong dedicated it to her family. While writing it, she relied on her Taiwanese American mother and father to get the mix of English, Mandarin and Taiwanese right.
"It gave me a lot of time with my parents, which I'll always think of as one of the greatest rewards of writing the book," Tsong said.
Her parents have since passed away, Tsong has portraits of the two of them that she made hanging in her studio, looking over her as she works on future projects. They continue to inspire their daughter to use her words and her art to help people understand each other - no matter what language they speak.
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Email.