Recently I read Tokyo Ever After and Tokyo Dreaming and one of the main plots of the story I enjoyed was learning about the Japanese culture. Often times, living in our home country we are not exposed heavily to outside cultures, at least not for me. And while teaching culture is best learned from someone within the culture, we have to be understanding and thoughtful, if we are outside of a culture that we are writing and/or speaking about.

For instance, Emiko Jean implemented a lot of her Japanese heritage into the Tokyo series– and she executed it quite lovely might I add. So, when it came to introducing providing information about the Japanese heritage, Emiko had the advantage of knowledge and experience on and of the culture, therefore rendering her a reliable resource. In addition to this, her experience more than likely helped her to break down lessons in a way the reader could understand, while not causing the reader to feel like there are in a history class but still reading a story and learning from.

Since the main character, Izumi, was new to Japan the history or Japan played an important part of the story because she is a princess to the imperial family. Just as Izumi is learning more about her culture in the Tokyo Ever After series, so are we. I think this was really clever because the history of Japan is not delivered in a harsh way where one would feel like they should have known about Japanese culture, but more so in a way that made the reader feel like they were experiencing the lesson with Izumi and that they are welcome to do so.

There has been a great debate about whether or not authors that are outside of other cultures should write about people within the culture. And while I agree with that, I will say it is okay to include characters of different cultures just as long as that character is not trying to be the voice of the community because it will then feel as though the author who is not a part of the community is trying to be the voice of that community.

I know this can be confusing but we are in a day in age where we are all learning an accepting one another and that involves being considerate of everyone’s feelings.

And with that said, if an author does decide to write about a character that is outside of their own community, it is detrimental to their writing to do heavy research into the culture and to have a team that will set them up for success in that area.

Furthermore, I will say, if you are implementing a character outside of your own personal culture, that that character should be secondary and not a main character to avoid misunderstandings and offense. I say this because it will feel as though the outside culture is trying to step in as a voice for the culture that is being highlighted and that is the misunderstanding that you would want to avoid.

I think the following steps will help tremendously with implementing culture, and this goes for authors that are in and not inside the culture. These are in no particular order.

1. Sensitivity Reader

What is a sensitivity reader? A sensitivity reader is a reader that reviews your book for any possible offensive, stereotypical, derogatory statements within your manuscripts. Make sure you have a sensitivity reader. It is one thing to be have representation and a voice for a culture and/or community, but if there is something inside the lines of your writing that could cause harm to that community/culture then you will want to have a sensitivity reader to identify it before publishing. This will provide you the opportunity to perform a revision.

2. Research

Make sure to do your research. Sometimes stories are passed down generation to generation, making it similar to a game of telephone. Therefore, it is quite easy to mix up information. You want to be as thorough and factual as possible when it comes to delivering a story, especially if you are taking the opportunity to teach something. Think of it as preparing a child for a task they have never encountered, you would want them to be as prepared as possible when repeating the lesson they learned. So fact checking is a must.

3. Delivery

I believe when there is an important lesson to be learning, we must keep in mind how we deliver it to others because it can cause them to disengage with what is being taught. For example, it would be best for the lesson to have a “Did you know?” tone, because at that point it will feel a lot more welcoming. Rather than the opposite “You should know this” tone because you don’t know what you don’t know. When you put your reader in the position to feel ashamed it can discourage them to learn more altogether.

All in all, if you want to implement your culture or a new culture into your writing, it can be done. We all interact with one another, meaning we all come in to contact with different people eventually.

So, if you are up for the task of implementing cultures, the 3 tips can all be summed up with the understanding that this can be accomplished by being considerate of your words, your delivery, and your motive. The way you deliver your message will determine the way the reader receives it. The words chosen will play a major role in the way a reader understands the lesson. And last but not least, your motive. Whether we like to admit it or not, a lot of our intentions are shown through our actions and delivery.