Multicultural Identities: Food
By LMReviews on Dec 22, 2008 in Multicultural Writing, Writing/Freelancing
Sometimes the best way to capture the multiculturalism of your characters is to incorporate the food of the culture in your writing. If your character is Irish, you don’t have to go into the vast history of Ireland, you could just mention some uncommon Irish meal or dish as being a favorite of your character’s.
For example, if I was writing about Kenyan journalist Wangethi Mwangi, to make him appear as a more human figure instead of just a journalist, I could talk about his hobby of Kenyan cooking. This would explain why many people list hobbies on resumes. It is a way to make an employment candidate appear more human. Not everyone is familiar with the food of a given culture. So with Wangethi Mwangi as my example, exploring the food of your character’s ethnic origin is a way to expand your reader’s horizon and round out your characters at the same time. Like Wangethi Mwangi and his love for Kenyan cooking, the love of food is universal, something that we all understand and can build a common ground around.
The next time you want to incorporate the details of your character’s culture, instead of referencing hair color or complexion, you can mention the favorite dish of their ethnic culture. It accomplishes the same thing in a more interesting way.
