Lisa Ko was born in 1977, her parents were immigrants from china. In 2016 she published her first novel that was titled The Leavers. The reason that Lisa wrote this novel was because she read the New York Times winning article about the story of “the detention of Xiu Ping Jang”. She was very moved by the story because it was about an immigrant making it into America which is very similar to what Ko wrote about. Lisa Ko’s The Leavers is about a young boy Abandoned in the United States by his Chinese mother. This Novel won many awards. It won the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR
The reason that this story was written in the first place stems from her own childhood. Lisa Ko was born in Queens, New York to a family of immigrants. Ko struggled being the first born of the family in the United States being Asian descent. Ko also struggled with being a minority in America, she faced many trials growing up regarding her race. This led to Lisa Ko being frustrated with the lack of representation that Asian Americans would get in the United States. Ko felt she needed to write this novel because she felt like she was the one that needed to represent Asian Americans and their struggles that they face growing up in the United states.
The most interesting part of why Lisa Ko wrote this novel is she wanted to write it in fiction. She noticed that most immigration stories come from non-fiction true stories, but there were no stories based off of just what they were thinking, so Ko changed that. The Novel was not about Ko’s life, it is about an Immigrant Chinese boy who struggles growing up in the United States. Ko used her own life experiences to make a story.
NBCUniversal News Group. (2018, April 24). ‘the leavers’ novelist Lisa Ko found success through massive failure. NBCNews.com. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/leavers-novelist-lisa-ko-found-success-through-massive-failure-n750811.
Guardian News and Media. (2018, April 22). The leavers by Lisa Ko Review – quietly sensational story of migrants’ plight. The Guardian. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/22/leavers-lisa-ko-review-migrants-debut-chinese-american.
Messer, M. (2017, July 21). Lisa Ko on immigration and the inspiration for “The leavers”. The Barnes & Noble Review. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/lisa-ko-immigration-inspiration-leavers.
I greatly appreciate your post. I find it fascinating to learn of the original inspiration of Ko’s novel, specifically Xiu Ping Jang. I feel that fiction is extremely persuasive in depicting stories that show emotion and impact on people as individuals, especially compared to statistics and figures.
I really enjoyed reading your post. It had really interesting information that relates to the novel we are reading this week. Great job!
I loved your presentation! I feel like often times readers looks at the meaning that the author conveys, but not their reason or their writing. Understanding this can change or further your understanding and appreciation of the reading. After reading your post, I have a better grasp of what motivated Ko to write this novel, and why she chose to write it in the manner that she did.
It is interesting that Lisa Ko chose to make her story a fictional one. It is understandable that she wrote the premise of her story to be somewhat similar to her personal story, but It’s interesting to me to realize why she wrote a fictional story. I also appreciate how you found the inspiration for why or how Ko decided to write the story in the first place, and how that one story in particular catalyzed her to begin writing and publishing her works.