Vanessa Hua

This past week, I had the privilege of hearing Vanessa Hua, an Asian-American author based in San Francisco, speak. She works as a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and has published two books, Deceit and Other Possibilities (2016) and A River of Stars (2018), works for which she has received numerous awards. At the event, Hua talked about her most recent novel, read a brief excerpt from her 2016 anthology, discussed current events, and shared parts of her creative process. A River of Stars follows Scarlett Chen, a pregnant Chinese woman, who, in an attempt to gain citizenship for her soon-to-be-born son, takes up residence in Los Angeles. Complications ensue, and Scarlett must navigate a country in which she does not speak the language, all while evading immigration authorities and attempting to gain a foothold in the United States for her son. The novel stands at the intersection of several dynamic populations: pregnant women, immigrants, Chinese Americans, and those who aim to suppress all such groups. The multiplicity of identities that the novel’s characters have, made further impactful by their distance from my own experience, serve as a window through which I can see from a wholly different perspective. The value of reading and analyzing this type of literature, at least to me, is inestimable. To make positive change in society, positive change must be made for all. To understand the change others’ need, I believe we must first understand—or at least seek to understand—our fellow humans that hail from different walks of life. 

 As a writer myself, I greatly appreciated Hua’s delving into her writing career and process. Several times, she touched on the importance of empathy in writing both fiction and nonfiction. As writing about others necessarily engages with characters or people with whom one does not have shared experience, Hua explained that acting as a sort of literary “vulture,” always listening or waiting to pick up cultural morsels, is critical. Moreover, she referenced her more long-term experience as a novelist, one marked by numerous rejections but ultimate success. While writing for numerous publications, particularly the San Francisco Chronicle, Hua has also worked on several side projects. She notes that, to achieve stability as a writer, she did not rely on one opportunity, instead refining her craft through various outlets and relentlessly forging ahead. Hua’s determination and enthusiasm inspired me to further invest in writing and to consider more often the communities of which my city is made up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Immigration and the Folly of Isolationism

Image
During the last decade, immigration has taken center stage in many political movements in the West. Frustrations with the apparent shortcomings of immigration fueled the rise of both far-right populism in Western Europe and the current American presidency. The underlying causes of this resentment or suspicion of immigration range from economic stagnation to increasing globalization to purportedly threatened cultural norms, yet the demonization of newcomers, particularly those from Latin American or Middle Eastern countries, is a common thread. However, the economic impact of immigration has long been understood by economists as generally positive, particularly in cases of movement from poorer to wealthier countries. In a novel way of going about opinion writing, Philippe Legrain outlines his support for and dispels negative misperceptions of immigration as a social phenomenon. In what is known as an Open Essay in The Economist , Legrain explains his reasoning for preferring immigratio...
Read more

Global Scholars Application Essay

In the United States, the resolution of governmental legislation is too often minimized to the impact it will have on the American people in order to signal the bill or policy’s proponents’ sole investment in their constituents. Not only does this tendency preclude the realization of America’s potential as a leader on the world stage, it also ignores this country’s responsibility to our fellow global citizens as citizens of the globe ourselves. The nationalist notion of putting America first, moreover, is not limited to politics but pervades many aspects of our society, reflected in conversation, media, and personal beliefs. Through my immersion in communities with global ties, both at home and abroad, I have realized the devastatingly reductive nature of this idea and have begun to more critically appraise what my role is, not only as an American but as a human. From outreach work in Nicaragua to community engagement here in Los Angeles, from the use of Spanish in Ecuador to its fami...
Read more