How strange that some texts without an alias would never be considered important texts or get the recognition or fame they would have today. In The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor, Mei is speaking with Bee about there future in which Bee responds with, “Well, you’ll move in with me and you’ll write stories, and poems under a man’s name and sell them to the paper. I’ll illustrate them for you.” The story subtly hint to the prejudices surrounding the main Characters. This book takes place in the 1840’s roughly and during that time the literary world was dominated by men. Women writers were often dismissed or judged unfairly. Using male pseudonyms helped their work be taken seriously. Mei would do just as the Brontë sisters and Mary Ann Evans did by using a male name to portray credibility.
The power and influence of just changing one’s name directly illustrates the power of conformity. I’m not only taking about changing names but cloths, appearance, and speech. This is dangerous because it allows one group to dominate and build expectations that only one type of person is credible. It is mind boggling that one must dress a certain way to be taken seriously and it will be others downfall for not accepting those who are not an identical copy of themselves. There is nothing new to learn if everyone is the same, there is nothing new to think about if everyone is thinking the same things. Life becomes grey and mundane. It is a crime against humanity, a crime against the beauty and art that is life to conform. It steals the beauty from life and the joy of something new and different to see, learn, understand everyday. Conformity steals color from the world and makes life practically not worth living. The human race is meant to learn and evolve and explore and depriving that is a crime.
Mei should put her shit on paper so the people that will grow and add color to this world will find it. So people like her can gain more credibility, so women do not have to hide behind a mans name, so people that love like her can be taken seriously. Mei should share her color and so should everyone else so that conformity can no longer be acceptable or a norm. It might not seem like there is a lot of conformity today but there is, My Friend Zhong Haoan goes by Austin because he didn’t want to bother trying to teach his friends to say his name in fear of being bullied. He is our valedictorian and my best friend and adds color to the world even if he doesn’t realize it, I wish he could of added more color to the kids lives that I grew up with… I think they could of really used it.
I think this is really powerful! Since The Legend of Auntie Po has so many references to the author’s life, maybe this book is their way of satisfying their childhood dream to write and learn like Mei expressed in the graphic novel. Since SHing Yin Khor is Malaysian-American, they could have grown up feeling that it’s impossible to share their voice in a way that people would take seriously. I wouldn’t want to make assumptions, but it’s entirely possible that a real-life encounter with the need to conform for the sake of being taken seriously inspired that conversation between Mei and Bee. I know many people who are currently facing and struggling with expectations of conformity, and I couldn’t agree more that it robs the world of uniqueness and color.