Cross-Cultural Storytelling

I’ve been fascinated for years with cultural differences and the differing worldviews of the many people I’ve had the privilege of getting to know in Asia.  When I first came to Asia as an inexperienced, meat and potatoes, rice-hating American (if you can believe that, how did I even survive those years?), I was thrown headlong, full force into mind-boggling circumstances I knew nothing about. What I thought I understood, I didn’t  When I thought I was doing the right thing, I wasn’t  After living in Asia for a couple of years, someone introduced me to the idea of value orientations – how different cultures have belief systems and values which orient their point of view from completely different starting points.

I learned that westerners generally value achievement where Asians typically value status. I learned that Americans tend to categorize issues into black or white, right or wrong, dichotomistic thinking while a traditional Asian mindset will look at an issue or event in a much more holistic manner taking into account the nuances of the situation. When I lived in Vietnam, my first language teacher told me how each month the local policeman would stop by to “drink tea” after which, as he stood up to leave, my teacher would hand him an envelope of appreciation for keeping the neighborhood safe. I immediately thought, that sounds like a bribe to me. Bribes are bad; therefore he must have been doing something wrong. But to my teacher, this gesture was anything but a bribe. It was a contribution to keeping the neighborhood safe; it was a way of saying thanks to the local lawman whose salary was so low that could not even support his family.
Now what does this have to do with writing? As I started piecing together my novel Beauty Rising, I began to see how writing cross-culturally requires a great deal of understanding about value orientations. It requires a deep probing of the ‘whys’ and ‘whats’ of a situation which a face-value reading of the story may not give you. Many scenes from the story couldn’t have been told in any other way, and if they had, they wouldn’t have properly portrayed a true depiction of Vietnamese culture.
Here’s an example. In the story, Phuong is asked to attend a ceremony at a local university with her foreign teacher who asked her to come along and translate. When they arrive on time, they wait and wait and wait until the top official of the district eventually shows up, making his grand entrance in his fancy car. When writing this scene, I could have just skipped ahead with the plot issues concerning the ceremony, but I felt it was crucially important to make the readers wait in anticipation just as the officials in Vietnam always do. It’s a matter of status. Status is acknowledged by the subordinates patiently waiting; while an American foisted on a situation like this might just say ‘This is ridiculous. I’m out of here’, a Vietnamese will sit and chat, not thinking anything the excruciatingly long wait. So when Phuong gets to talk with the official later in the scene, she has already shown her respect of his status, which becomes very important later on as she gets involved with him.
Will a reader without Vietnam experience pick up on nuances like these written into a story like Beauty Rising?  Not likely, and neither are they necessary in understanding the story.

However, they are, in my opinion, crucial in writing authentic, cross-cultural fiction.  I’d be curious what you think.

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Mark W Sasse resides in Malaysia where he teaches drama and history, and where he does his writing.   He is passionate about live theater and has written more than a half-dozen plays which he has produced for the stage. His most recent play, “Grandparents’ War” is currently in production in Penang. He is a western Pennsylvania native who loves baseball, Asian food, and good music.
His newly released first novel is a work of literary fiction entitled “Beauty Rising.” It takes advantage of his vast Vietnam experience by telling the fascinating story of a troubled Vietnamese woman named My Phuong who steals the wallet of a foreigner in a crowded Vietnamese festival.  This foreigner is Martin Kinney – the awkward young man who came to Vietnam to fulfill his dying father’s last wish. The stolen wallet unexpectedly sends them both on difficult journeys to discover love, hope, and redemption.