More Than Just a Story

7 min read:

Stories make the world go around. We absorb them every day, sometimes without knowing that we are doing so. They can comfort us, guide us, teach us new things and act as firm friends. However, they can also marginalise and misrepresent depending on who is telling the story and what is omitted, or which point of view is dominant. For example, in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator, there is a section where a Chinese character speaks with the letter L replacing the letter R. Chinese people are mocked and here it’s clear that the storyteller thinks that Chinese people are lesser and a subject for mockery.

As a storyteller and a story creator – I try to make my stories as inclusive as I can. I try very hard to centre our shared humanness. Empathy, the ability to feel and see another’s point of view, is central to what I am trying to achieve, and of course, having an entertaining story is also a priority.

One of the best things about being a children’s author is sharing stories with children. I recently did a school visit and the children were mesmerised when I started to read part of my book. Their eyes were wide, they had on their ‘listening ears’ and they were eager to ask questions about being an author, and imagination. I like to share with the children that I didn’t grow up in a house full of books, and that I wasn’t someone who always say they knew they wanted to be a children’s book author. I want to be honest about my origins and it’s important for me to let people know that you can grow up in a council house and still follow your dreams. That we also are part of our own stories.

I recently went to an online screenwriting seminar with John Yorke, who is one of the most respected screenwriting teachers in the U.K. He talked about how stories are everywhere, not just in books and on the big and little screen. Politicians use storytelling to make people vote for them, marketing and advertisers use stories to entice us to buy things, charities use stories to encourage us to believe in their causes. Stories are how we make sense of our lives. And for those of us, like myself, who rarely see someone British Chinese as the main character, you realise that stories reinforce power structures – they can erase, and they can empower. They can be mirrors (reflecting certain realities) and they can be windows (allowing the reader to peek into someone else’s lives). Children’s stories are perfect vehicles for entertaining, sharing, teaching, and encouraging children to see that humans are flawed, emotional, complex beings.

That is why I think that stories are the perfect way to promote empathy and other values. Stories are the windows into other people’s lives. For example, in A.M. Dassu’s award-winning book BOY, EVERYWHERE the reader walks alongside Sami as he leaves all he has known in Syria and makes the fraught journey to the U.K. as a refugee. It’s the perfect book for empathy. And so are many of the stories that I custom-wrote for The Big Think, which is a relationship and PSHE whole school curriculum and my debut novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths also encourages children to think about what it might mean to be an outsider in Britain today.

The Big Think commissioned me to write stories for whole school primary assemblies and to find other authors to also contribute. Some of the stories are for KS1 (lower school) and others are more complex and have KS2 (upper school) in mind. I wrote stories about children all over the world working together to do one thing that could help in the fight against air pollution. I also wrote about intergenerational friendships, bullying, food scarcity, kindness in the times of Covid. And many more. The main work of The Big Think is to allow debate around the commissioned stories which all harness a value, without preaching. Their website says:

Our aim is to create safe spaces for children aged 5-11 to begin to connect to their values & build the skills needed to critically reflect, compassionately listen and empathetically take action. To help them make stronger connections with their home, classroom & community.

What I begin with usually is a relatable character that the reader will see as unexceptional – despite how flawed or seemingly different that character may be to the reader, the elements of humanness are always present. The stories act as a discussion catalyst for pupils and teachers to debate meaningful relationships in the world around us. Even though empathy is one of the goals of these stories, there are also ways that a child can build resilience, and thoughtful dialogue with peers and teachers by looking at multiple sides of the debate.

In Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths, Danny’s newly arrived grandmother causes Danny to feel a little embarrassed. He’s also got a lot of pressures and things he is thinking about, such as his friendship with Ravi. Should he tell Ravi that he really wants to hang out with the seemingly cool gang of boys at the park, even though he knows what Ravi thinks of them? Can Danny tell his parents that he’s not good at maths, even though they expect him to be academic? Having a character like Danny can help children navigate friendships and family. Many children’s books do this well, such as The Accidental Diary of B.U.G. by Jen Carney whose funny main character sometimes feels left out or misunderstood. Billie, who is the main character, has two mums, and is adopted. Yet, despite her circumstances (which are totally normalised), she must navigate friendships at school like all the other pupils.

Stories, for me in particular as a British Chinese author, are a brilliant way to introduce British Chinese culture that is hardly ever seen in children’s books or in other media forms. Part of my novel explores how Nai Nai (Danny’s grandmother) faces prejudice at a local bingo hall. Nai Nai is beloved by many young (and old) readers. I wanted to show that even when someone can’t speak the same language as you, or has a different background, you can still be friends, you can still accept that person’s humanity. No matter where a character or person is from, they still have emotions and dreams like everyone else.

Conversely, I centralise the British Chinese family’s experience. Everything is from Danny’s point of view as he is the one narrating the story and Danny is certainly not perfect, he makes bad decisions sometimes, as we all do. I use first person a lot in my stories because I think that allows the reader to get close to a character and to follow in their footsteps. They can empathise with what that character is going through, or they can learn something they didn’t know before. Having respect for other cultures is another thing that stories allow us to experience.

My main goal was to have my books and stories in schools because I used to love going to school myself, and I was exposed to stories in school that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. I must credit my English teachers who were all brilliant.  They wanted to open our minds to experiences and places outside of my very small world growing up which was mainly confined to the Midlands. I never went on family holidays or saw much of the world until I went to university. Therefore, stories about other places and other people were part of my education and set me up for life to be more open-minded. Stories are what gave me the impetus to travel and to become a teller of stories myself. I hope that my work can inspire the younger generation to do the same.

Find out more about Maisie’s books and projects at maisiechan.com.