#multicultural writing

[lnk-and-lnspiration]

The Power of Diverse Voices in Literature: Why It Matters

As storytellers, we are constantly striving to create engaging and impactful stories that resonate with readers. We pour our hearts and souls into crafting well-rounded characters, compelling plotlines, and thought-provoking themes. But have you ever stopped to think about the importance of diverse voices in literature? In today’s world, where diversity and representation are crucial topics of…

[ashleyfableblack]

"Okay… what about this one?" Queen Twilight tapped a hoof on the page. With a soft glow of her horn she drew out the complex symbol in the air as she sounded it out. "Vah… Lahk. Varahk? Varrac!"

Chrysalis smiled. "Perhaps…" She sleepily craned her neck to study her most recent clutch of eggs. A sticky green resin held the precious charges in place, dangling from a nearby rocky overhang. As the wind funneled through the natural arch, they gently swung, rocked as a baby in a crib.

With a puff of her cheeks she blew a gust of glittering pinkish light in their direction. The love energy swirled around the eggs like an octopus ink, clouding the air in a warm soupy fog before it was absorbed into the tiny grey orbs. The as-yet-unborn gobbling up the nourishment from their mother. Chrysalis gave a sleepy yawn and began to slowly drift to laying on her side,. She wondered if they, too would have violet eyes like their little lavender pony other-mother.

"Chryssi?" Twilight gave her wife a gentle prodding with her wingtip. "Honeybug?"

"MRZussaffm…" Chrysalis's eyes struggled open.

Twilight gave an pleading grin at the pitifully adorable sight of the little larvae nuzzled around her bughorse bride as they tucked into the translucent tresses of her cobweb-mane. "Chryssi…?"

Chrysalis chittered to one of the larvae and gave her an affectionate nip, removing a flake of molting chitin. "I'm sorry, beloved. I'm just-" she yawned again . "You know your pony naming conventions are so unnecessary to our changelings. They're hatched knowing their designations through the hive-mind."

Twilight pouted with a pleading smile as she leafed through the pages of the incredibly ancient book. "I know it's a point of cultural confusion between our races, beetlebum. That's why I'm trying to incorporate more of your culture and try some names more familiar to your people and your people's history- while at the same time educating myself on the Ancient Equish language and history." She held the book aloft in her magic with a prideful flourish, still carefully keeping her place in its pages. "THUS, we are using one of your old journals from the pre-Sucrosian Period!"

Chrysalis sighed and gave a playful roll of her eyes in surrender. She had to chuckle. When Twilight was like this, she truly couldn't deny her little wife anything. She watched with interest as Twilight opened her old journal. Two of their larvae quickly skittered from the navy waves of her wife's mane to climb on the millenia-old manuscript. Excited to help their ponymother, they chittered happily, holding the page in place with their forelimbs.

"So…. Varrac?" Twilight asked with a bright, curious smile.

"Well, she was good with snakes."

Twilight looked from the ancient book to one of the tiny changeling larvae cuddled into her crest of alicorn chest-fluff. "Are you a 'Varrac'? Are you going to be good with snakes?"

The tiny face lit up like a Hearthswarming bonfire at her ponymother's excited smile. She hissed out her tiny forked tongue and wiggled her little caterpillar-like rump of a tail segment. Twilight fawned with motherly pride and nosed at the tiny changeling babe. "I'll bet you will be. Of course you will. You look just like a Varrac."

Chrysalis adored moments like these, lazy afternoons together with her wife, watching her excitement and pride as she learned new things. Pouring over old volumes of any sort, Twilight came to life in a whole other way. Knowledge was her passion.

"Let's see here… What about… This one, V….Vaaa….Varghan?"

Chrysalis peered over the tome. "Vabam. As I recall she …was good with secrets…. good at telling them anyways."

Twilight crinkled her nose at that thought. Looking to one of the larvae she shook her head. "That doesn't sound like you, does it?" The tiny changeling babe tilted her head. returning her ponymother's smile and shake of the head. "No. You're not a Vabam. That's an honest little face if I've ever seen one. Hmmmm…."

She continued pouring over the swirling, magical symbols. With Chrysalis tutelage she was learning the art of reading them but still, the practice was FAR more complicated than any language she'd ever encountered. Deciphering the symbols was as much mental wrestling as it was arcane finesse, even compared to the darkest and most ancient of pony magics. "Okay, what about… Sssssurgat? No. I remember you said something once about that one. She liked to pick locks or…. Oo! Suluth! What about that one, Chryssi?"

After a few moments of silence Twilight looked up from the page. "Chrysalis?"

She chuckled. Chrysalis had dozed off. Their tiny charges, nestled secure in the tucked chitinous hooves of their armored queen-mother, mirrored her gentle snoring.

"Oh well." Twilight sighed. With a curling of the enchanted waves of her mane she drew the larvae gathered around her into her crest of chest floof. "I guess that can be enough for today."

The alicorn queen softly shut the tome. With a mother's love, she gently carried her little buggy babes with her as she sidled over to the slumbering bughorse. After a few moments of ooching she eventually found her way into the creche of her wife's limbs and In the enchanted air of sweet summer breeze the royal family drifted off together.

[micewithknives]

I am sliding into your inbox to ask you about historically multicultural australia 👀 what’s one fact/event/etc no one’s asked about yet that you think makes a good story?

I have a million and one ideas for things that no one has asked about that i think are terribly underrated. But I'll roll with a definitely not unknown, but definitely brushed over, simple answer of the topic of "afghan cameleers" in Australia.

While theyre often called "Afghan" in Australian history, they actually came from a variety of countries throughout the Middle East and south Asia. They were predomanently Muslim men, some bringing their families, although other religious minorities did also exist.

The Cameleers, (and their camels) were first brought over to Australia in 1838, although in no form of high numbers until 1858 when they were involved in the Bourke and Wills exploration of the east coast states. As a British colony, there were various high level people in Australia who were aware (from interactions with India and the Middle East primarily) of the benefits of camels in dealing with desert climates.

For over 50 years, camel trains became the primary form of transporting pastoral goods across much of the rural parts of Australia, at the hands of very experienced Cameleers. As a result of this, there was historically a number of towns which became known as "little Asia"s, "little Afghanistan"s or "Ghantowns".

Many of these men are coming to be recognised in modern times as fundamental actors in Australia's modern history. They also married Aboriginal, Chinese, or European women, and often, despite racial and cultural descrimination, became well respected members of local towns, playing important roles in their developments. Many of the men continued to travel back and forth from their home-countries, conducting business on an international scale. At the peak of employment, it is believed that 2000-4000 cameleers were employed in Australia, however recording of this immigration at this time is limited, and it is possible the numbers may have been higher.

However, when Australia introduced the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (otherwise known as the "White Australia Policy"), many of these men found they were unable to become naturalised citizens of the newly-federated country, and thus unable to return to the communities (and families) that had become their homes. The remaining "afghan" communities dwindled after this. With the increase of railway access to Australia, the need for skilled cameleers died out, and the once valued workers became subject to a lack of employment, and increasing government and community persecution. Much of the men that remained into this time chose to return to their home-countries.

However, some communities remained. The town of Marree in South Australia is the location of the first Mosque in Australia, and is recognised as the longest surviving "Ghan-town" community, and the location of many descendant families. These workers, and their descendants, are also responsible for the construction of Australia's oldest permanent mosque, the Central Adelaide Mosque.

In recent times Australia is beginning to acknowledge important role these men made in the country's modern history, although they are subject to limited discussion, research, and archaeological recognition. And there is still a way to go, especially in making sure that the surviving archaeological sites relating to these communities and workers aren't lost.

[sentientcave]

Last line(s) challenge! Tagged by the one and only @glossysoap (if you have good taste go read her snippet of her Orc Price project because it is HOT)

Here's a little bit from chapter 6 of Retirement Party featuring poorly translated Spanish (If any friends or followers speak Spanish, especially Filipino Spanish (which has, notably, been on the decline for a long while, but it's the language that Dalisay and her grandmother have in common, since Dalisay doesn't speak Tagalog and Lola's English is so-so), and want to help me out, give me a holler. It's probably an unnecessary detail but we love unnecessary details here.)

Segment below the cut!

You're not sure what possesses you, but you get up, and you make him sit, and you go to fix his coffee and wrap a bag of frozen peas in a tea towel. When you turn around, he's reached across the table to pull your laptop closer, smiling at the camera when Lola claps her hands together, delighted.

"Es guapo, Dalisay. Pero no joven, ¿eh?" She says, laughing. He's handsome, Dalisay. But not young, huh?

"No," he agrees, "soy demasiado mayor para ella. Todavía soy lo suficientemente egoísta como para intentarlo de todos modos.” I'm too old for her. I'm still selfish enough to try anyway.

You set down the coffee and glare at him. But you still gently set the ice pack on his raised ankle, squeaking as he pulls you into his lap, sitting you on his other thigh. "John!" You protest.

"Oh, relájate, apo,” Lola chides, laughing, unhelpfully reading the situation just the way John wants her to. She seems impressed by John's accented Spanish, happy to not need to use English to speak with him. "Yo también fui joven una vez. Me preocupaba que ella nunca encontrara a alguien.” Oh lighten up, apo. I was young once too. I was worried she would never find someone.

"No es que ella no pudiera,” John says. "Ella es tan hermosa, pero mantiene la distancia." It's not that she couldn't. She's so beautiful, but she keeps her distance.

Tagging (no pressure): @dragonnarrative-writes , @mortuarywriting and @charliemwrites

[morelove4mixedrace]

I am Mexican Canadian. First/fifth generation. I have been challenge, doubted, and alienated due to my ancestry.

I believe many in this world struggle with the idea that there is more than just a binary/dichotomy. That things aren't just black and white. You can extend this to a lot of different facets of identity, but the most relevant is race. Mixed race people are often told (implicitly or otherwise) to be one or the other. The feeling of being an intruder or an imposter in your community, struggling to embrace every side of you at once, being ostracized for the traits you lack and the ones you shouldn't have. All of it culminates in a sadness. I'm making MoreLove4MixedRace because I want us to feel united, not alone or unwanted. This is one of the closest issues to my heart, and it can be difficult to find resources and anecdotes from fellow rebels of the race system. Perhaps I am a half breed, a mongrel, a mutt. Still, I love every ragtag part of me.

[faebirdie]

me seeing all these moon knight fanfics where the boys celebrate christmas rather than hanukkah:

[eosofspades]

does anybody have any blog recs, masterposts, or other resources for writing desi characters/cultures?

[casuallyferal]

okay, but

multiethnic aus & aus from different cultures are my FAVORITE.

UT as it is now is only one bundle of myths and one manner of dressage. All that can be transformed! There are similar myths on ither continents and in many, many cultures.

Give me new languages, new clothes;

what if the Underground was under India instead, in East India, where two siblings dodge their villages' Durga puja and discover a gaping hole in the old mandir's ruins?

What if the ruins of the mandir topple in to show them the way, as if Maa Durga Herself decided Monsterkind no longer needed her protections, and opened the way for the sibling's pure hearts? (if you take up this idea i humbly request the boy be named Raam and don't forget the little bell anklets for the little lady ❤️❤️❤️)

Toriel in saree. Bet y'all sacrums that Papyrus ABSOLUTELY would drop us ALL DEAD by carrying Bharatanatyam styles with so much energy!! Undyne would look so FIERCE, not integrating martial arts would be criminal. I would feel compelled to give her Maa Durga iconography. All of Sans' attire are prestitched...yes, even the lungi. Even the lungi is prestitched. Alphys is trying her best but the pallu is always wrinkly and uneven, so the kids help her out with dailywear tricks they've watched their Dida do hundreds of times.

Or Pacific Islander. Dead volcanos leave bubbles deep inside the earth. The beating of the sea above creates white noise.

Or a pit drops out from beneath a hilltop fort in the Welsh dells. The people still speak in the old way and look frightened when you speak of the Romans and Human Tribes both, but they don't know if the Romans ever came. Go back further if you like, way further, to when the petrified trees in the Irish Sea were tall and green!

...Or use a totally different mythic inspiration!

A treasure-hunter seeks the jewels of an ancient king, said to have cleansed the land of evils and made a fortune on the way, which he had hidden to remove the demon of temptation from the good people. Except, his treasurehide was the Underground -- and if he tries to remove even a single "piece," the entry collapses. He'll need all his wits and purity of heart.

Tales of the local Folk Catholics turn out to be... not all that wrong. There IS a Hell-portal out there. And, if they didn't put it there, someone else sure did. Even worse... there's real people down there; ...and the last thing either party remembers is the destruction of Asriel and Chara. Niche Folk tales can come forward and sensationalized tropes can step backwards.

Or, something far removed from myth entirely -- magical peoples condemned in a world that will no longer understand them.

A subterranean geologist visits a friend and notices a landmark on a map that isn't there now. They know that, because they're visiting the region for work soon. There's the decision to rappel in and see what was so noteworthy...but what they both didn't anticipate was wicked magic. The Barrier snaps a perfectly good, new repel line like butter once they're inside its maw. Inside, a humble people are being devastated by earthquakes and their civil engineers need a hand. They can only see a limited perspective of the region. But, now it's political -- an adult problem for an adult specialist.

They're alternate universes.

Let's make them OURS. I feel like that's something Toby would want, comparing Undertale and Deltarune.

(yes i have had a burst of questionable sanity and i will be writing most of these now thank you)

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

Lunar New Year marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar. The holiday is known by different names in different countries. For example, in China it is called Chūn Jié, in Vietnam it is Tết, in Korea it is Seollal and in Tibet it is Losar, just to list some of them. Feel free to mention others in the comments.

To call to it Lunar New Year means it’s inclusive to all who celebrate, as opposed to using the blanket term Chinese New Year. To use the latter implies that the holiday is exclusive to China and the Chinese people.

By casually calling this day “Chinese New Year,” we are forgetting the many other East and Southeast Asian cultures that celebrate the beginning of the lunar calendar. The erasure of those other Asian cultures who celebrate this holiday is important to consider.

It’s indicative of the much repeated pattern of a diverse and multicultural society trying to group seemingly similar cultures together. This speaks to the ways in which Asian people and our culture are often treated as a monolith and experience many generalisations and ste reotypes. I think it’s important for us to be recognised for our differences rather than being endlessly grouped together under the umbrella of “Asians” or “Chinese.”

To this end, I personally feel Lunar New Year is the most inclusive phrase to use (unless you’re certain of one’s cultural background and may therefore decide to be more specific). I still have my moments where I have to correct myself and refer to it as Lunar New Year. Language is important. Making this small change and correcting ourselves is a small step in helping to make people feel included, seen and respected.

Source

Alyssa Ho Writings linktree

[landofspaceandrainbows]

Thanks to @flashfictionfridayofficial for the prompt!

~

Fandom: Homestuck

~

Karkat:

They were getting to be that age when, in the olden days, as trolls they would start working their name signs into their more elaborate adult clothes and making more fashion choices. Or at least that was true if the huge ass books Terezi and Vriska kept showing him were accurate. Karkat had idly sketched out some plans as he fixed his shirt. But that only brought up the age old argument again, "But Karkat, why do you write your sign as gray? Isn't that incomplete?"

When he shared that with Jade, she declared it was "Very FUCKING classy." and when he did with John he said his grandma and dad would like it and went on this weird ramble about how "gray and brown are the core colors of the wardrobe of a gentleman. Although a spot of color could be welcome." and showed him some weirdo catalog from this place with the word "depot" in big letters in the name. Eh, Gamzee or Terezi would probably go nuts if he started wearing a watch, nuts and more clingy than usual. They were weird in the best ways.

[culminada]

I'm asexual! but I barely experience acephobia because my other three alienating traits are like shields that protect me from it 🙃unfortunately I do experience the -phobias people have of the other three things so. yaaay my ability to make friends? not to mention romance? ugh.

first up is that I'm multicultural and belong to a cultural minority. I'm not going to talk about it a whole lot because it's very confusing! Mostly it obstructs my social life from my end, by getting in the way of me feeling like I have anything in common with people - of my culture of origin OR general American culture - so yay.

Second up! The autism! I had to practice for YEARS before I got the hang of interacting with people I didn't know well. And in the meanwhile, no friends for m! Yippee! Stims, special interests (GW2, Trahearne, and fic of the same), executive dysfunction, etc make this Not Any Easier ugh

Dermatillomania, the incessant picking of my own skin! Like I said, red blotchy face isn't very attractive. Sometimes I'll be bleeding and not notice. yaaaaay. not to MENTION. the sheer TIME it takes out of my DAY. how am I supposed to learn the wifely skills of my culture when I?? lose HOURS to dermatillomania and executive dysfunction? (they have a feedback loop on each other.)

So yeah, by the time somebody infiltrates the layers of visual disgust, autistic communication barriers, and cultural differences, they're pretty well screened against something as simple and boring as acephobia. You don't get close to me without being VERY accepting of differences. (or just. yknow. capable of critical thinking and the awareness that people are different lolz.)

(I also tended to be that twelve-year-old who sighed wistfully and said I can't wait to get married, I want to get married ASAP, you know historically people got married at like. 13 right? and so everybody around me was always going OH DEARY YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY WAIT... LIKE SIX MORE YEARS IF NOT LONGER which I'm sure my fellow asexuals would have loved to hear, but my alloromantic brain was Very Unhappy about. it has now been 6+ or more years, for the record,)

anyway that's me. I got tired of repressing my aceposting and autism-posting and so on, bc my other blog is a fandom fic blog. btw go check out @skaald-of-the-hearth-fires that's the fifth, unofficial reason I feel alienated. (actually that falls under the autism heading, nevermind) my culture barely does video games. nobody in regular old boring American culture plays my special interest video game either. I find this quite distressing when people ask what I do and I say oh!! I'm a writer! I write fanfic for Guild Wars 2!! oh you haven't heard of that. ok. I'm so normal about that. so I've written the fic to be quite understandable to non-gamers, fandom-blind readers, and brainrotted fans alike :)

[teetlestansecond]

actually i'm a Bad Jew™ and forgot today is in fact sunday and the first night of hanukkah so this week's chapter won't be posted until tomorrow 😭😭

however!! in the meantime i am asking so nicely for you guys to ask questions about the shattered au thus far!

[endearingsalt]

The field of psychology knows nothing. We are so fucking behind. It is fucking incredible how much there is a black void where research into autistic adult clients in a talk therapy setting should be.

If you want to get really mad, try looking up specifically autistic adults in marriage counseling. Fuck-all. There were 18 results total, of which about half had to do with couples who have an autistic child, and the other half weren't even about therapy. Like, I'm going to keep looking for a little bit, but this is fucking bleak. I focus my academic papers on autism whenever I can, and it's always hard to get everything I need, but I've always done it. This paper? I don't think there are enough academic, peer-reviewed papers in existence on this planet to meet my source requirements for a 10 page masters paper. Absurd. Shameful. I'm having to go at my topic from the side and add subtopics about how related therapies approach autism because there literally aren't enough otherwise.

This post was going to be a zingy one-liner but then I just kept getting more angry.

If anyone tries to take this rant and claim that I said therapy is useless, kindly fuck off. There are good clinicians out there; I intend to become one of them. I'm training with several others who will be too. I know this field can be better than the state of this research. We have to do better as a collective. The fight for equality is the same here as it is in everything else—urgent, vital, and slow.

[strohller27]

.

[k12academics]

We are committed to helping develop better global citizens through our interactive shows, workshops and residencies. Specifically, we promote world music and art; multiculturalism and diversity; kindness, acceptance and respect; thinking creatively and imaginatively; and protecting the environment.

[gildedbearediting]

A Look At: Digging Up the Mountains

A Quick Toe-Dip Digging Up the Mountains was written by Neil Bissoondath in third person, and has three parts. The main character is Hari Beharry. The story deals with fear, corruption, ethnicity, racism, slavery, inequality, and persecution. Rangee and Faizal are both killed with their watch and wallet missing, and shot twice in the head. Hari believes both to be robberies as stated in police…