Scholarly Article

Editors’ Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Asian American Children’s Literature, by de Manuel and Rocio G. Davis

This article by Dolores de Manuel and Rocio G. Davis successfully discusses many important aspects concerning Asian American literature. Manuel and Davis bring it to the reader’s attention that despite the increase in multicultural literature within our society, the amount of Asian American literature is still marginally low. This article’s main theme could be described as one of insistence. It insists that we as readers open our eyes to how little literature on (or written by) Asian Americans is actually being published. This article also speaks to teachers, describing how even in the classrooms Asian American literature is all too often overlooked, and motivates teachers to change this. The article zeros in on just how important Asian American literature is by explaining how to this day, society often still sees Asian Americans as foreigners who will never fully blend into the “melting pot” we call America. Manuel and Davis successfully stress the importance of children’s literature in telling the story of ethnic American writing by describing how Asian American children are caught in a triple bind. They are “pressured to remain faithful to ancestral heritage, while at the same time admonished to assimilate and become fully American, but ultimately finding that because of their Asian genes, many Americans will never give them full acceptance”. In today’s society where the acceptance and the embracing of one another’s differences is encouraged and promoted, how is it that Asian American’s are not being welcomed into this embrace as easily as other cultures? Manuel and Davis succeed by leaving this question embedded into your mind by the time you finish this article. This article is very informative to the past and current struggle of Asian Americans to make themselves and their stories visible in society. We as readers finish the article with the strong desire to help bring Asian American literature to the forefront and to help bring forth the voice of a group who has been overlooked for far too long.

de Manuel, Dolores and Davis, Rocio G. "Editors’ Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Asian American Children’s Literature." The Lion and the Unicorn 30(2006): v-xv. Print.