I am writing a book with my first multi-cultural hero - well, if you don't count the werewolf. He is half Chinese and half Irish. I can relate to the Irish part, being half Irish myself, but I'm definitely not half Chinese, whatever the unknown rest of me may be ethnically-speaking.
   I'm playing with the myth of the Chiang-shih, or Chinese Vampire. When we write about vampires, or werewolves, or whatever, we're used to picking and choosing the bits of the creature mythology that work for our story, and doing our own world-building. I'm doing exactly the same thing with the Chiang-shih, but without a lifetime of understanding what the Chinese creature means culturally.
   I wonder how dangerous it is to play with myths that we haven't grown up with. For instance, will readers be offended that my wanna-be Chiang-shihs don't hop? From what I've read, they don't always hop in myths, though this feature has become prevalent in movies apparently.
   Perhaps more dangerously, I may throw in a Taoist priest. I may have to interview someone for this. From my research I think I have the facts I need, but I may get it all wrong, and religion is even more sensitive that myth.
   How careful to fiction writers have to be about this stuff? Just as I'm writing this, I see there's an uproar about how the show 24 is showing Muslims. Here we go again with the cultural sensitivity issue. But writers have to work with something, and there's likely to be a bad guy. Dan Brown chose the Catholic Church, the 24 writers apparently chose Muslims. It has to be someone!

 

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