Writing about Culture

Today is the Korean Thanksgiving called Chuseok, which lasts for three days. Each year I wonder if there are any story ideas lurking when I attend my in-law's activities. But so far, I haven't thought of any. Plus, someone else already wrote a marvelous picture book about the holiday. However, I'll still keep my eyes and ears open. By the way, in the photos above, the first picture shows practical gifts given, usually boxes of fruit, food, or shampoo/toothpaste sets wrapped in fancy silk cloths. The second picture shows some appetizers, sausage patties and zucchini patties dipped in egg, and the last is a skewer with mushroom, radish, crab, Spam, and fish. The last photo is Songpyon, traditional Thanksgiving rice cakes filled with crushed sesame seeds, sesame oil, and sugar. They're supposed to be in the shapes of a half moon to picture how the moon fills up, signifying that they hope their harvest is plenty. (at least that's what I read...my relatives made this food.)

This got me to thinking today. Have you ever written a story that takes place in another culture? I've written about the Korean culture because I'm living and learning it. And I've written one story based on a true account of a similar culture to South Korea by conducting interviews, watching You Tube Videos, and reading lots of articles on the subject. (still to be published someday)

If you've written about another culture that's not your own, what kind of research did you do? Watching video clips about the culture really helped me feel like I was there. 

Currently, my daughter is reading A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. I wondered how Linda Sue wrote this without visiting Sudan. Here's what I found on the web. 

While researching A Long Walk to Water I read Salva’s own accounts of his journey and interviewed 
him many times. For Nya’s part of the book, I had access to notes, photos, and video footage from 
people who had visited villages like hers (including my husband, who traveled to southern Sudan 
in 2009). I read several books about the Lost Boy refugees, watched documentaries and researched 
articles. Most important of all, of course, was my unrestricted access to Salva and his willingness to 
share his memories.   ~Linda Sue Park  http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/skins/uqp/_uploads/TeachersNotes/A%20Long%20Walk%20to%20Water.pdf
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I've read how American publishers need and want to publish more multicultural books. What do you think of authors writing about a culture not their own? I know it's been discussed. You might have seen the illustration below circulating among the kid lit community. Something else to think about!

Amazing illustration by artist Tina Kugler about the lack of diversity in children's literature in 2012. Kugler's illustration is based on the findings by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University Wisconsin-Madison which analyzed 3,600 last year and discovered that less than 8% of the total titles they received from publishers were about people of color.