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RACISM IMPACTS various facets of the lives of
people of color (POC) in the United States, spanning
across historical and contemporary contexts. Chinese
Americans,1 as an ethnic group historically excluded
from entering the United States and denied natural-
ized citizenship, have endured distinctive and enduring
forms of racism that are “quantitatively and qualita-
tively different from [those] suffered by other disempow-
ered groups” (Chang, 1993, p. 1247). Furthermore,
with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese
Americans, along with other Asian communities, were
once again painted as a “yellow peril”2 ( Wu et al.,
2023). Anti-Asian, specically anti-Chinese, sentiment
increased during the pandemic and caused serious forms
of racial stigmatization and violence toward Chinese
Americans (Zhou et al., 2022).
These signicant racial stigmatizations also contributed
to a shift in the racial climate for Asian American children
within educational settings (Jeung et al., 2020). In over half
of the documented incidents of anti-Asian backlash in schools,
the “perpetrators employ[ed] anti-Chinese hate speech, includ-
ing blaming China and the Chinese as the source of the virus”
(p. 1), causing distress and trauma among students of Chinese
descent. However, schools have often failed to deliver an
authentic portrayal of racial realities (Ladson-Billings, 2009);
further, they have not provided timely racial literacy education
to students during times of public crisis (Guo, 2023). Moreover,
many Asian American families exhibit limited participation
in discussions about race (Kim et al., 2023), and some even
consider talking about race as taboo, further exacerbating the
issue (Pauker et al., 2015).
Considering the limited discussion on race among
Asian Americans within educational and familial contexts,
coupled with the urgent necessity to enhance children’s
comprehension of anti-Asian racism, this study explores
ARTICLES
©Children’s Literature Assembly ISSN 1521-7779
WENYU GUO
Fostering Student Activism:
Addressing Anti-Asian Racism
through Children’s Literature in
a Community-Based Book Club
This study, informed by AsianCrit and reader response
theories, explores how second-generation Chinese American
students in a southern state negotiate their understandings
of anti-Asian racism through reading historical fiction
and relevant texts illustrating the racialized experience of
Chinese Americans during COVID-19 pandemic.
Journal of Children’s L itera ture, 50(2), pp. 25–37, 2024.
1 In this manuscript, “Chinese Americans” refers to individuals
residing in the United States who are of Chinese descent,
regardless of their citizenship status.
2 Yellow peril is a racial stereotype targeting Asian immigrants
since the nineteenth century (Takaki, 1990). This derogatory
ideology portrays Asian people as a threat to Western civilization.
26
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATU RE VOL 5 0 N O 2 FAL L 2024
how second-generation Chinese American students make
meaning of anti-Asian racism and foster activist perspec-
tives through reading a selected text set depicting racial
experiences of both early Chinese Americans and Asian
communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of
a larger project exploring students’ bicultural and racial
identities through literacy engagement, this study primar-
ily centers on their counternarratives and emerging
activist stances while responding to a curated text set.
Literature Review
Reading and discussing multicultural literature serve
as a common means to initiate conversations about race
(Boutte & Muller, 2018; Vlach, 2022). Students respond
to critical issues around social and racial justice with
critical thinking, reecting on their racial identities and
disrupting hegemonic hierarchies (An, 2020; Brooks et al,
2018; Daly, 2022; Epstein & Gist, 2015; Kim, 2010; Price-
Dennis et al., 2016; Son, 2020). Discussed later, studies
have demonstrated that centering race when reading and
discussing literature enhances students’ positive racial
identity development and fosters their understanding of
race as a systemic issue.
Fostering Positive Racial Identity
Literacy practices centered around race lead both teachers
and students to understand their own racial identity and
its uidity, to challenge internalized racism, and to resist
stereotypes. For example, Kim (2010) examined how six
Korean American elementary students in a literary discus-
sion group responded to children’s literature that mirrored
their lives in the United States and revealed that Korean
American students created hybrid and dynamic identi-
ties inuenced by intersections of gender, religion, and
age, as well as social, racial, and educational experiences.
Kim (2010) found that exposure to authentic narratives in
texts invoked these students’ reections on their collective
racial identities as Korean Americans and enhanced their
understanding of immigrant struggles, which ultimately
contributed to their personal transformations.
In another study, Son (2020) demonstrated that
through reading children’s literature in a multicultural
book club, Korean immigrant students engaged in critical
conversations related to their immigrant experiences,
current marginalized status, social inequalities, and
injustice in the United States. In addition to the critical
conversations, Son (2020) observed that three students of
Korean descent provided each other with suggestions and
support, eventually working together to combat the stigma
associated with their marginalized identities. In short,
while immigrant students faced numerous challenges and
struggles, engaging with relevant children’s literature and
in critical conversations cultivated a profound understand-
ing of social and racial justice, fostering critical thinking
and transforming their lives.
Race as a Social Construct
Students engaged in critical conversations around race
recognize that race is a social construct and that racism is an
institutionalized problem occurring at a societal level (Epstein
& Gist, 2015; Price-Dennis et al., 2016). In K–12 classrooms,
students’ comprehension of race evolved signicantly during
a weeks-long literature unit, as they grasped racism at the
societal level (Price-Dennis et al., 2016). Engaging in discus-
sions about race, power dynamics, and skin color enabled them
to uncover inequitable structures in American society that
often remained hidden in their daily lives.
Brooks et al. (2018) explored African American
students’ involvement in discussions about race through
an after-school book club. This experience deepened their
understanding of racism as an enduring and ongoing issue
in contemporary society. Their perceptions of racism were
inuenced by conversations about race and stories shared
by family members in their everyday lives. Although they
had not directly experienced unjust violence from white
police ofcers, they related to the story and expressed
feeling less safe and protected due to a shared skin color
with the protagonists. This suggests that exposure to
authentic narratives can provide children with valuable
opportunities for engaging in racial literacy.
However, I found no research to date that explores how
Chinese American children negotiate their understandings of
anti-Asian racism through literacy engagement. Most of the
Asian critical race theory (AsianCrit) studies focus on social
studies curriculum (An, 2016, 2022), teacher education (Chu,
2024; Daly, 2022), parenthood (Qin et al., 2022), autoethno-
graphic studies (Reyes, 2023; Teo, 2023), and international
students in higher education (Yao & Mwabgi, 2022). Only a
few scholars have explored racial literacy education through
the AsianCrit lens, including adult identity negotiation
through reading (K im et al., 2023). In this study, I explore
Chinese American students’ understanding of racism and
the possibility of learning about race in literacy education for
Asian American populations in the U.S.
Theoretical Framework
ASIAN CRITICAL RACE THEORY
This study draws upon AsianCrit (Iftikar & Museus,
2018) to center critical issues that are unique to Asian and
Asian American communities within the United States.
AsianCrit is rooted in long-established traditions of critical
race theory (CRT) (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Solórz-
ano & Yosso, 2001), critical legal studies, critical indige-
nous studies, and Asian American studies (Chae, 2013;
VOL 50 NO 2 FALL 202 4 JOURNAL OF CHILDREN ’S LIT ERATURE
Wenyu Guo Fostering Student Activism
27
Chang, 1993; Coloma, 2006; Curammeng et al., 2017; Lee
& Zhou, 2015), offering a nuanced perspective specically
tailored to examining the multifaceted impacts of oppres-
sion on Asian Americans.
CRT examines how systemic racism is ingrained
and operates within institutions and society to oppress
people of color (Crenshaw, 1990). However, given the
specic immigrant and racialized history of Asian
Americans, Chang (1993) argued that CRT had “not yet
shown how different races matter differently” (p. 1247).
This challenged the historical focus of CRT on the Black/
white binary paradigm based on race. Given the need
for theoretical perspectives that explicitly explore the
impact of various types of oppression endured by Asian
Americans and that advocate for the telling of stories by
Asian Americans and their communities (Chae, 2013),
critical theorists began centering Asian experiences over
the past ten years (Chae, 2013; Curammeng et al., 2017;
Harpalani, 2013).
Considering the frequent invisibility of Asian
Americans in the educational system, Museus and Iftikar
(2013) conceptualized AsianCrit to center racial realities of
Asian American educational experiences. This framework
consists of seven interconnected tenets that draw on
aspects of CRT (see Table 1). These tenets provide a
theoretical foundation to examine the experiences of Asian
Americans within US educational contexts and to articu-
late the specic ways Asian Americans are racialized.
They also enable Asian Americans to distinguish their
experiences from other communities of color. Furthermore,
these tenets provide a theoretical framework that invites
scholars to reconsider possible literacy instruction for
Asian American children.
This study mainly draws on three tenets—(re)
constructive history; story, theory, and praxis; and commit-
ment to social justice—to forefront students’ literary
discussions and responses. First, drawing on the tenet of
(re)constructive history, this study repositions Chinese
(and Asian) American authentic historical narratives
from the periphery to the center. It disrupts the dominant
discourse that positions Chinese Americans as a “yellow
peril” or mere victims by highlighting their resistance to
racial violence and injustice.
Second, drawing on the tenet story, theory, and
praxis, this study forefronts the lived experiences of partici-
pant students, drawing from their families and communi-
ties as counternarratives, to validate the Chinese American
realities, elevating Asian American experiential knowledge
and challenging the prevailing mainstream discourse
dominated by whiteness (Ladson-Billing & Tate, 1995).
Finally, commitment to social justice highlights the
emerging activist stance of Chinese American students who
gradually developed their agency and started to advocate for
social and racial justice for Asian communities and for all
minoritized ethnic groups during our book club meetings.
These three tenets signicantly inform racial literacy for
Asian American students, urging a centering of Asian
American experiences in the realm of literacy education.
AsianCrit guides this study in several ways: (1)
centralizing Asian American experiences and drawing
attention to the narratives and stories by and about Asian
American people in the United States, (2) operating as
an analytical tool to understand ways in which Chinese
American people are racialized in the United States, (3)
operating as an analytical tool to understand students’
literary responses to conversations around race, and (4)
celebrating the scholarly and literary contributions of
Asian American writers and artists as acts of resistance
and challenges to Asian American invisibility.
READER RESPONSE THEORY
Additionally, I draw on Rosenblatt’s transactional theory
to investigate the literary responses of my participants
when reading and discussing texts. Reader response theory
acknowledges the role of readers in creating meanings from
texts. Rosenblatt (1978) stated that readers and texts work
collaboratively to create interpretations, highlighting the
transaction process, which she refers to as the “poems” (p.
12) readers construct with texts. She explained that reading
processes occur as “the meaning – the poem – ‘happens’
during the transaction between the reader and the signs
on the page” (p. xvi). The “poem” is embodied in the actual
reading process, resulting from a convergence of the text
and the reader. Rosenblatt (1978) also stated that reading
literature is a lived-through experience that is “shaped
by the reader under the guidance of the text” (p. 12). She
argued that (1) the text is a stimulus, activating the reader’s
prior experiences with literature and life, and 2) the text
is a blueprint for ordering, rejecting, and sketching what
is evoked from the reader (Rosenblatt, 1978). Rosenblatt
argued that reading occurs as “a transaction, a two-way
process involving a reader and a text at a particular time,
under particular circumstances” (p. 268). Rosenblatt’s
transactional theory invites educators and teachers to
validate the active roles played by readers in the act of
reading and the value of the lived experiences of readers.
Methodology
For this article, I drew from a critical reader response
study I conducted as part of a larger one-year single-site
collective case study (Stake, 1995) from 2021 to 2022.
The larger study involved four second-generation Chinese
American students who engaged in reading and discussion
of culturally relevant children’s literature in a community-
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATU RE VOL 5 0 N O 2 FAL L 2024
based space—the Bubble Up Book Club—afliated with
a local Chinese heritage language (CHL) school in the
Southeast United States. The study presented in this
article involved me working with these students in the
book club, focusing on reading and discussing children’s
literature and related digital resources that specically
depict the early Chinese American racialized experience
of historical relevance, COVID-19, and racialized realities
faced by Chinese (and Asian) Americans. The following
section introduces the research context, book club routine,
participants, children’s literature selection, data collection
and analysis, and the researcher’s positionality.
RESEARCH CONTEXTS
The book club was established at a local CHL school
situated in a southeastern city within the United States.
In 2020, the city had an estimated population of 137,541
with a demographic of 53 percent white, 40 percent African
American, 5.5 percent Latino, and 2.7 percent Asian
American residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). This city
serves as both the state’s capital and its second-largest city,
home to more than ten universities and colleges.
CHINESE HERITAGE LA NGUAGE SCHOOL The CHL school was
established by Chinese-descendant professors at a local
research-intensive university two decades ago with the
initial purpose of offering Mandarin Chinese language
tutoring to university faculty members’ children. Over the
years, the school’s role has transformed to accommodate
the growing population of Chinese immigrants seeking to
preserve their children’s heritage language. Today, with
over 250 enrolled local Chinese American students, the
CHL school plays a pivotal role in preserving cultural and
linguistic heritage. It offers Chinese language and literacy
education from pre-K to twelfth grade, serving both
immigrants and second-generation Chinese Americans, as
well as students from diverse racial backgrounds within
the local community. Located on the university campus, the
school holds classes every Sunday afternoon.
BUBBLEUP BOOK CLUB In January 2019, I established the
Bubble-Up Book Club within the CHL school, initially
enrolling six second-generation Chinese American
students. Over the past four years, I have conducted
weekly literary discussions to support students’ bicultural
and racial identity development through literacy engage-
ment. The club’s establishment arose from my teaching
experiences and close interactions with students and
their parents at the CHL school. I observed limitations in
Chinese language textbooks, which often focused solely
on language acquisition and featured stories set in China,
overlooking the diverse linguistic and cultural experiences
of Chinese Americans. Additionally, Chinese immigrant
families in the southeastern city struggled to nd authentic
children’s literature. In collaboration with parents and the
school principal, we established the Bubble-Up Book Club
to fulll two key objectives: providing culturally relevant
children’s literature and fostering bilingual and bicultural
literacy engagement for local Chinese American families.
As a transformative and inclusive space for Chinese
American students, the book club facilitated their engage-
ment with Chinese American stories, promoting their
transnational awareness and understanding of culture,
race, and racism within a minority context.
BOOK CLUB ROUTINE
The book club meetings convened weekly at the CHL
school. Every Sunday afternoon, I engaged the participat-
TAB LE 1
Seven Interconnected Tenets of AsianCrit
Tenet Description
Asianization Refers to the racialization of Asian Americans and the distinctive ways in which Asian Americans are racialized in the United
States (e.g., model minorities, perpetual foreigners, and thre atening yellow perils).
Transnational contexts Emphasizes the importance of national and international contexts and how borders have shaped historical and contempo-
rary political, economic , and social conditions for Asian American people.
(Re)constructive history Involves the (re)construction of a historical Asian American narrative in response to the unique racialized history and exclusion.
Strategic (anti)essentialism Acknowledges that race is socially constructed and shaped and reshaped by economic , political, and social forces.
Intersectionality Refers to how various systems of oppression, including class, gender, and sexuality, intersect to affect the Asian American
identities and experiences.
Stor y, theor y, and pra xis Focuses on how AsianCrit applies to the real world through storytelling.
Commitment to social justice Aims to end all forms of oppression and exploitation.
Note: The tenets in bold are employed in this study as focal analytical lenses.
Source: Museus & Iftikar (2013).
VOL 50 NO 2 FALL 202 4 JOURNAL OF CHILDREN ’S LIT ERATURE
Wenyu Guo Fostering Student Activism
29
ing students in interactive read-aloud sessions during
which we explored selected picturebooks alongside relevant
multimodal texts. These sessions were conducted in
English since all the chosen picturebooks were written in
English. However, to enhance and diversify their literary
responses, both Mandarin Chinese and English were
utilized throughout the book club meetings during literacy
activities, including picture walks, questioning, and
written reections. The students in the book club are all
natural bilinguals and were encouraged to freely express
themselves in both languages.
PARTICIPAN TS
It is worth mentioning that within this study, Asian
American denotes individuals residing in the United
States who are of Asian descent, regardless of citizen-
ship status, while excluding Native Hawaiian and Pacic
Islander groups due to their distinct historical, spatial, and
discursive complexities. Among the most populous Asian
American subgroups in the southeastern states are Indian,
Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Korean (Budiman &
Ruiz, 2021). This study primarily focuses on the students
and families from East Asia, particularly those of Chinese
descent. Nonetheless, the research ndings hold signicant
implications for other ethnic groups as well.
I call my participants readers, as they were actively
engaged in the reading process, connecting their everyday
experiences to the stories they read and demonstrating their
agency as readers. All the readers in this study were second-
generation Chinese Americans who were born in the United
States to their rst-generation Chinese-born parents. I
purposely selected this group of students because they are
often enculturated within two cultural frameworks simulta-
neously (e.g., immersed in the dominant cultural norms of
their schools and the Chinese traditions of their immigrant
families) and experience unique challenges of identity
development (Choi et al., 2016). They were students at the
same local CHL school and had maintained active member-
ship in the book club for at least one semester prior to
entering the current study. Thus, they understood the book
club’s routine well and were well acquainted with each other.
At the time of the study, the entire book club
comprised ve students: three male and two female
students. One student, the younger brother of Xing, was not
considered a participant, as he was signicantly younger
than the other students and demonstrated a different level
of literacy and understanding of the racial issues focused
on in this study. Thus, in this research, four second-genera-
tion Chinese American students were specically chosen as
focal readers. For a detailed breakdown of the demographic
information pertaining to these readers, please refer to
BOOK SELECTION
The texts read and discussed for this study are three
historical Chinese American picturebooks, one artist-
created cartoon, news reports, and extended multimodal
texts depicting the racial experiences of Chinese Americans
in the United States with historical and contemporary
relevance. These texts were selected using the following
criteria: (1) presents authentic narratives about the racial
TAB LE 2
Readers’ Demographics and Family Backgrounds
Name
(Pseudonyms) Gender Age School Grade
Level
Year s
in Book
Club
Family Background
Yiyi Female 9 Fourth grade 3
Business owners. Father completed a bachelor’s degree
in China; mother did not nish her b achel or’s degree in
China but did attend a two-year community college in
the United States.
Lele Male 10 Fifth grade 3 Yiyi and Lele are siblings.
Xing Male 11 Sixth grade 3
Father received his master’s degree from a local
university and works in local government as a business
representative; mother received her bachelor’s degree
in China and is a housewife and volunteer in a Chinese
heritage language school as an accountant .
Hui Female 11 Sixth grade 2
Both parents received PhD degrees from universities in
the United States. Father works as an assistant profes-
sor in the local university, and mother works as a senior
scientist in a local pharmaceutical company.
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATU RE VOL 5 0 N O 2 FAL L 2024
experiences of Chinese Americans in the United States, (2)
refrains from presenting a story that solely depicts Chinese
Americans as victims, and (3) advocates for recognizing
the contributions of Chinese Americans and the heroism of
Chinese Americans in the face of racism.
Based on these criteria, I selected the following texts
(Table 3) and summarized the textual features of these
texts as follows: (1) Chinese American racialized narratives
and history, (2) Chinese Exclusion Act (CEA): segregation
and immigrant detention, and (3) COVID-19 anti-Asian
racism. Notably, in addition to the primary resources,
students were offered extended readings and multimodal
resources to enhance their comprehension of anti-Asian
racism. The selection of these supplementary materials
adhered to the same criteria previously described.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The data collection occurred between December 2021 and
May 2022. The data include (1) transcriptions from ve of the
weekly book club meetings; (2) students’ written responses,
including answers to questions and reading reections during
the book club meetings; and (3) the researcher’s eld notes.
In this study, data analysis aimed to provide in-depth
insights into how second-generation Chinese American
students engaged with texts depicting racialized experi-
ences. For the analysis process, I began by reviewing
interview notes and eld journals. I used analytic memos to
reect on the data’s connections to theory and the overarch-
ing narratives of the Chinese American community. In
the rst cycle, in vivo (Saldaña, 2013, p. 91) and descrip-
tive coding (Saldaña, 2013, p. 87) were applied to identify
initial themes. The second round of coding involved pattern
coding (Saldaña, 2013) to establish themes across various
data sources, while the third round generated larger themes
and subthemes based on analysis across multiple book club
meetings. The nal pattern codes were used to formulate
statements describing major themes.
POSITIONALITY
As an immigrant educator and researcher of color in
the United States, I possess rsthand knowledge of the
challenges Chinese immigrants and their descendants
would encounter while navigating the complex racial
landscape institutionally and positioning themselves
within the predominantly Black/white binary discourse in
the United States. Additionally, prior to embarking on this
study, I had interactions with the participating students
and their families within the CHL school for two years,
where I served as a language and literacy teacher. These
interactions fostered solid relationships within the local
community and led me to contemplate the experiences
of Asians and Asian Americans in the southern states,
particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. My
research, coupled with my profound understanding of the
racial experiences among Asian Americans, as well as my
personal experience and concerns, serve as the foundation
for my scholarly inquiry and advocacy efforts.
Findings and Discussion
As students read the texts selected for this study,
we discussed Chinese laborers on the transcontinen-
tal railroad, the CEA, segregation, the Angel Island
detention center, and anti-Asian speech and crimes
during COVID-19 pandemic. Students engaged in
critical discussions, generating counternarratives to
disrupt the dominant whiteness discourse as they
negotiated understandings on issues of social and racial
justice. Additionally, students began to adopt an activist
stance to combat their marginalization and the height-
ened anti-Asian racism exacerbated by the COVID-19
pandemic. Findings are presented through three major
themes: (1) understanding racialized experiences of
Chinese Amer icans, (2) developing counternarratives
to anti-Asian racism, and (3) fostering an emergent
activist stance.
TAB LE 3
List of Selected Picturebooks and Texts
Genre Themes Title Author Year
Historical picturebook Historical narratives on racialized discourse Coolies Yin 2003
Brothers Yin 2006
Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America James , Helen Foster 2013
Additional texts
History of Chinese Exclusion Act “Bound for Gold Mountain,” from Angel
Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain
Freedman, Russell 2013
Racial experience during COVID-19 pandemic I’m Not a Virus (cartoon) (see Appendix) Sjöblom, Lisa
Wool-Rim
2020
Photos of local Stop Asian Hate protests
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Wenyu Guo Fostering Student Activism
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UNDERSTANDING RACIALIZED EXPERIENCES
OF CHINESE AMERICANS
Through discussion and reection, students shared their
voices, thoughts, and emotions surrounding the CEA, as
they recognized it as a severe form of racism imposed on
Chinese immigrants. When interacting with the extended
reading on CEA and its historical background, Xing began
to understand the lives of Chinese immigrants under the
CEA and how it validated the oppression and violence
against immigrants and their descendants in the United
States. He shared his thoughts that
the Chinese were being exposed towards racism that
they had not previously felt during the building of
the Transcontinental Railroad, but they were being
attacked with a much greater form of racism that
became legal3 under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Similarly, Hui added, “I think that it was very unfair to sign
the Chinese Exclusion Act because it is unfair to discrimi-
nate [against] a group of people based on their race.”
It is worth mentioning that Xing and Hui displayed
an ambiguous understanding of racism in our earlier
readings of Coolies (Yin, 2003) and Brothers ( Yin,
2006). When we discussed the prohibition against
students of Chinese descent attending white-dominated
schools, Xing responded, “[Chinese immigrants] don’t
speak English,” considering English prociency as a
key for POC to integrate into mainstream society. Hui
also exhibited a similar tendency to justify racism
and xenophobia. However, after reading the histori-
cal background of the CEA with additional texts,
they learned that the CEA was a racialized law that
positioned Chinese Americans and immigrants on a
lower rung on the racial ladder, subjecting them to
severe racism and xenophobia. Learning about the
CEA enabled students to reanalyze their understand-
ing of Chinese Americans’ experiences depicted in the
stories, fostering their reconstruction of the narratives
surrounding Chinese immigrants and their racialized
experiences in the historical context. Xing and Hui
comprehended that the unjust treatment of early Chinese
immigrants portrayed in Coolies and Brothers stemmed
from the underlying issue of racism, which Hui described
as “discrimination based on skin color.”
During our reading of Paper Son (James, 2013) and
its historical background related to the CEA, students
learned the unique hidden history of Chinese Americans.
Chinese-born immigrants needed to purchase documenta-
tion from Chinese individuals who had already received
US citizenship to prove that they were blood relatives,
which would allow them to reenter the United States,
and yet they still experienced harsh investigations in
immigrant stations. Students started to understand
systemic racism and unpack the unique racialization
targeting Asian Americans—the perpetual foreigner
stereotype that posits Asian Americans as “others” in
relations to a white-dominant society (Lee et al., 2008)—
which allowed them to reconstruct their understandings
of racial justice.
For example, in response to the reading Xing stated,
“The Chinese had to adapt to these conditions or leave
the United States. Some may have left but others have
adapted. Lying became common to remain innocent.” He
then added that Chinese Americans at that time were too
powerless to ght against the whole system. Focusing on
the expulsion of Chinese Americans under the practice of
the CEA, Hui said, “I think that it was unfair to kick the
Chinese out of somewhere they used to call home.” Hui
unpacked the CEA with several layers of understanding.
She understood the CEA was a racialized law exclusively
aimed at Chinese immigrants and their descendants.
Moreover, Hui generated the narratives to disrupt the
discourse of the CEA and called the law “unfair” since it
ruled out Chinese Americans’ citizenship and forced them
to move out of their “home.”
Additionally, the students responded to the harsh
immigration policies of the CEA and made connections
with immigration today in the United States. Responding
to the racialized law, students said,
Lele: Every single Chinese should be able to go to the U.S.
Hui: Now, people don’t have to try and sneak around
the government and say that they are American, not
Chinese. I think that the immigration policies before
were too strict and [it] was not very necessary to
interrogate a kid. It is better now because everyone is
free to immigrate now.
3 Quotes that show students’ explicit racial awareness are noted
in bold italics.
Learning about the Chinese Exclusion
Act enabled students to reanalyze their
understanding of Chinese Americans’
experiences depicted in the stories,
fostering their reconstruction of
the narratives surrounding Chinese
immigrants and their racialized
experiences in the historical context.
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Yiyi: Now, Chinese immigrating here, [to] the U.S.,
don’t have to stay under the shadow and stay in their
house forever.
Students actively compared past and present immigrants’
experiences, discussing how conditions have improved
since the time of the CEA. This demonstrates that second-
generation Chinese American students, growing up in
immigrant households, have formed their narratives and
stories by drawing from their families’ and communities’
experiences as counternarratives to illuminate issues
surrounding immigration. However, as a scholar with
an immigrant background, I am concerned about the
knowledge gap between what students learn from their
families and schools and the actual events in the real
world, particularly regarding the recent intensication
of immigration policies (e.g., Florida recently enacted
an anti-immigration law—SB 1718—criminalizing the
transportation of individuals into Florida who may not
receive federal inspection, restricting the cross-border
activities, and other actions). There is an urgent call for
schools and families to engage in meaningful critical
discussions with students about current events and to
incorporate critical issues into classroom curricula to
foster a deeper understanding of social and racial justice.
DEVELOPING COUNTERNARRATIVES
TO ANTIASIAN RACISM
Through our readings and discussions on hate speech
and crimes targeting Chinese and other Asian communi-
ties during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as protests
organized by local and national Asian communities
through artwork and news, students not only developed
an understanding of contemporary anti-Asian racism but
also actively related it to their own experiences as Chinese
Americans. This engagement enabled them to challenge
and disrupt prevailing racialized discourses. Specically,
students identied that Asian Americans were affected by
a double pandemic: the anxiety associated with contract-
ing the virus and the fear of being targeted by hate speech
and violence while venturing outside.
During our reading of antiracist artwork made by a
Korean Swedish artist, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, students
reected on the rst time they heard people refer to the
“Wuhan virus” or “China virus” (see Appendix). Xing
recalled his rst time hearing about these racial slurs:
Uh, it (was) supposed to be a very innocent day. U h,
fth grade me in the science and social studies class. We
watched CNN 10. And then I heard of it. At that time, I did
not take it very seriously. Just coming out, just go away.
Xing used “innocent” to reference the fact that it was
a regular day in school, and he did not expect to be
positioned as he was while doing a regular school activity—
watching CNN. As Xing mentioned during our interview
that he was the only Asian boy in his class, it could be
imagined how the racial slur “China virus” automatically
positioned Xing as a victim. In short, residents and individ-
uals of Chinese descent were contaminated with the virus
and had a possibility to spread it.
Xing later shared that he felt ashamed and
embarrassed because the virus was associated with China.
Thus, Chinese people were positioned as the cause of the
problem. Xing said his social studies teacher was not
providing any kind of antiracist intervention for him or
for the whole class. It is concerning that the discomfort
caused by the racial slur and the educational opportunity
it presented for both the individual student and the entire
class were overlooked. Similarly, Hui reported “I just
googled ‘coronavirus’ and the [term] ‘Wuhan virus’ [was]
coming out.” As evidenced by both examples, students were
just doing ordinary things—watching CNN, googling—
but they encountered racist memes, words, and slurs. It is
evident that negotiating stereotyped and racialized experi-
ences became a daily occurrence during the pandemic.
In the Bubble-Up Book Club, however, students
disrupted the racialized discourse and maintained that
calling the virus a “China virus” or “Wuhan virus” was
racist. They were angry and disappointed at the widespread
racial slurs that scapegoated individuals of Chinese descent.
Hui: I don’t think it [Wuhan virus] should be used. I
felt that it was wrong to call COVID-19 as the Wuhan
virus, because it’s kind of racist. I felt very angry
and disappointed that everyone was blaming it on
the Asians. My parents were also angry.
Xing: Yeah, I agree with Hui and Wuhan virus
should not be used.
Yiyi: I also felt sad that American people are
blaming Chinese people that they started the virus.
Lele: I think that they should not be doing that stuff
to Asians.
There is an urgent call for schools and
families to engage in meaningful critical
discussions with students about current
events and to incorporate critical issues
into classroom curricula to foster a deeper
understanding of social and racial justice.
VOL 50 NO 2 FALL 202 4 JOURNAL OF CHILDREN ’S LIT ERATURE
Wenyu Guo Fostering Student Activism
33
Students expressed strong emotion and maintained
that these slurs should not be used because it targeted
a certain group of people and scapegoated the entire
Chinese and people of Chinese descent, which is not fair.
Some of them regarded it as a racist behavior because
it blamed the virus on a specic group of people. All
students maintained that racial slurs should not be used
and spread. It is evident that students actively weaved
their counternarratives with their lived experiences from
their family and community to disrupt the prevailing
racialized discourse.
With continued reading and discussion, students
recognized this as a behavior of racial stigmatization and
called these names “racist.”
Hui: I think it’s racist because it (is) kind of 针对
(targeting) Chinese people.
Xing: It is denitely racism because you’re blaming
it on one entire group of people.
Hui and Xing said that the naming and relevant hate
speeches were targeting a certain group of people and
blamed the Chinese for creating and spreading the virus.
They identied these actions as racist and rejected the
racial stigmatization of the entire group. Furthermore, Hui
connected anti-Asian racism to the Atlanta spa shooting,
where six women of Asian descent were murdered, and she
confronted the racial hate crime as follows:
And rst of all, it’s not China’s fault that COVID
originates from there. And second of all, it’s not
China’s fault that the COVID still going through in
the U.S. and third of all, those are not the people that
caused the virus, why are you going to kill them?
Hui’s counternarratives on anti-Asian racism wiped out
the racial stigmatization and victimization of Chinese
and people of Chinese descent. Hui actively deconstructed
the dominant discourse that depicted Chinese people
as virus carriers and threats, especially in the face of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, she drew from
her lived experiences, as well as those of her family and
community, to construct narratives that validated the
realities faced by Chinese Americans. Through this, she
challenged the dominant discourse that often scapegoats
Chinese and other Asian groups.
Hui’s responses were strong and inuenced other
students positively. Similarly, disrupting the dominant
discourse that degraded Chinese people as the inferior
citizens who spread the virus, X ing maintained many
people brought back the virus from traveling to Europe and
other countries and spread the virus to their neighbors and
community, instead of solely spread by people from China.
During the book club meeting, students openly
discussed their encounters with racist memes and slurs
targeting Chinese residents and how they navigated and
responded to these pervasive racial stereotypes and discrim-
ination, which demonstrated Chinese American students’
ability to deal with the difcult talks around anti-Asian
racism and the necessity to engage these students in
learning about racism and the racialized realities faced by
Chinese and Asian Americans communities.
FOSTERING AN EMERGENT ACTIVIST STANCE
As our reading and discussions progressed, students
learned about various protest demonstrations initiated
by local and national organizations led by Chinese and
other Asian communities. These protests, joined by diverse
ethnic groups, aimed to combat discrimination, racism,
and violence targeting individuals of Asian descent during
the COVID-19 pandemic. A protest aimed at stopping
Asian hate, initiated by the local Chinese community, was
particularly inspiring to the students. Previously, some
students had expressed sentiments such as Xing saying,
“When I did hear about the hate crimes . . . I wasn’t
very concerned that it was going to happen to me.” and
Hui’s comment that “There’s like nothing I should do” to
combat anti-Asian racism. After the discussions, students
demonstrated an emerging activist stance, propos-
ing various measures to combat anti-Asian racism and
eradicate racism altogether.
When brainstorming the measures to stop Asian hate,
Hui stated that she would “tell everyone that COVID-19
most likely did not come from China” and encouraged us
all to “spread the word that you should not blame Chinese
people for it.” In addition to disrupting the racialized
dominant discourse, Hui expressed that she would take
actions to spread the message. For example, she maintained
that “you should not blame Chinese people” or target
Asian people for the virus. I observed a transition in Hui’s
responses from previous meetings, where she expressed,
“there’s nothing I should do,” to a more proactive stance,
stating, “spread the word.” Partly inuenced by learning
about community unity and multiracial solidarity through
news reports on the Stop Asian Hate protests organized by
Asian and Chinese communities across the United States,
Hui gradually developed her agency as an emerging activist
who advocates for telling the truth about unfairness.
In responding to a series of brutal hate crimes, Hui
advocated with a rm voice:
Sometimes if you don’t get treated fairly. Stand up
for yourself. Don’t just accept it. If you really want
something, you have to ght for it. Can’t just sit
there and wait for it to happen.
34
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATU RE VOL 5 0 N O 2 FAL L 2024
Hui demonstrated an even stronger activist stance
after learning about the hate crime targeting Asians at
Atlanta; she advocated from a personal stance to encour-
age individuals to stand up for themselves and ght
for justice. Hui assumed an active role when respond-
ing to the hate crimes targeting Chinese Americans.
She employed assertive and impactful language, such
as “stand up” and “ght for” to advocate for a resolute
pursuit of justice and equality. Her stance extended
beyond her identity as a minoritized individual, reect-
ing her broader commitment as a human being confronted
with unfairness. Hui’s response marked the development
of her agency as an activist committed to social and racial
justice not only for Asian communities but for all minori-
tized ethnic groups.
Different from Hui, Xing exhibited a more complex
and mixed feeling when responding to hate speeches and
crimes during COVID-19 pandemic. Xing said,
Spreading the word that Asians did not cause
COVID-19 would get [the] situation worse. I’ll
use social media to state the fact. I feel a lot more
condent on the internet than the real life.
It is important to underscore Xing’s discomfort with actively
engaging in physical advocacy for justice, which was largely
inuenced by the pervasive racial tensions targeting Asians
and Asian Americans during the pandemic. Then Xing
came up with the solutions to mitigate racism:
Racism can’t be prevented, but you can make the
problem less worse. You can talk to someone and
ask why. You can use why as an argumentation to
that person. Well, making the racist person angry
would only lead to this person [to] stick to this belief
more and more. Calm would have more chance to
change. Saying your own reason for right or wrong
in a more calm [sic] manner would be good.
Xing suggested that using the approach of “asking why”
should serve as a starting point for engaging in conver-
sations with individuals exhibiting racist behavior. He
emphasized that maintaining “calm” is a more effective
strategy for facilitating change, rather than resorting to
verbal or physical confrontations. Though expressed differ-
ently, Xing’s response also reected his emerging activist
stance. He advocated for a peaceful approach to ending
racism by persuading others to recognize the negative
impact of their behaviors.
During discussions on the hate crimes targeting
Asian Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic, students
demonstrated their emerging activist stance by propos-
ing various measures to unite communities and eradicate
all forms of racism. Hui emerged as a passionate advocate,
stating her determination to stand up and advocate for
justice. On the other hand, Xing conveyed his concerns to
public announcements on Stop Asian Hate and advocated for
calm and peaceful conversations with individuals exhibit-
ing racist behavior. These two distinct responses among
students surfaced when they became aware of the protests
initiated by the local Asian American community, as many
of them had previously been indifferent to the racist hate
crimes. The transition experienced by students in develop-
ing an understanding of anti-Asian racism underscores the
importance of actively engaging them in learning about
racism and the racialized realities encountered by Chinese
and Asian American communities in the United States.
Conclusion
This study seeks to understand how second-genera-
tion Chinese American students (re)negotiated their
understandings of anti-Asian racism in the United States
through reading historical ction stories and related texts
about the COVID-19 pandemic. As we read Coolies (Yin,
2003), Brothers (Yin, 2006), Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to
America (Tales of Young Americans (James, 2013), and
historical facts about the CEA, students unpacked racism
as an unjust behavior based on race and ethnicity. During
our reading and discussion, they gradually understood the
distinctive racialization of Chinese Americans in histori-
cal and contemporary settings and made connections with
current happenings.
Findings demonstrated that students actively
generated narratives to disrupt and challenge the
dominant discourses to mitigate racism. Additionally, it is
signicant to note that the students’ learning about racism
was not a one-time event; instead, it was an ongoing and
dynamic process. Without proper and timely racial literacy
education at school and within the family, it may prove
difcult for students to generate positive narratives, which
may lead them either to justify or internalize the racism
they experience in society. There is a need for continu-
ous education and self-reection to counter students’
self-generated narratives with presumptions and explana-
tions surrounding racism.
Implications
Findings of this study highlight the use of various literary
artifacts as tools that pass on histories, experiences, and
life lessons to upcoming generations of children of Chinese
descent. Additionally, this study demonstrates that
picturebooks, together with supplemental material (e.g.,
extended readings, images, videos), can support second-
generation Chinese American students’ understanding of
race and racism with both historical and contemporary
relevance and foster their race learning.
VOL 50 NO 2 FALL 202 4 JOURNAL OF CHILDREN ’S LIT ERATURE
Wenyu Guo Fostering Student Activism
35
Additionally, I recognize the difficulty of continued
study in the school context with the same population.
The challenge presented by non–West Coast contexts,
especially in the Deep South and conservative-leaning
states, highlights the importance of this research due to
the prevalence of a white-dominant school curriculum
and conservative educational policies (e.g., ban on CRT
and certain children’s books). These factors compound
the challenges encountered by Chinese and other Asian
American students, who are often susceptible to stereo-
types and marginalization. Consequently, researchers
and educators are urged to provide additional support
to Asian American students, particularly those with low
socioeconomic status in the Deep South and conserva-
tive-leaning states.
Although this study focused heavily on elemen-
tary students’ responses to the diverse cultural and
racial experiences of Chinese Americans, researchers
should take further steps to explore southern states’ K–8
classroom teachers’ views toward students’ race learning
and racial literacy development, with specic attention to
notions of ethnicity, race, and cross-racial understanding
and solidarity and how their understanding inuences
their instructional and curricular decisions. Consider-
ing the race talk dilemma existing in most Chinese
American families, more research should be launched to
explore how rst-generation Chinese immigrant parents
unpack racialized discourse and anti-Asian racism and
provide racial literacy support to facilitate their children’s
comprehension and negotiation of concepts pertaining to
ethnicity, race, identity, and racism within the cultural
and historical context of the American South. �
Dr. Wenyu Guo is an assistant professor of literacy studies in the College of
Education at the Univer sity of South Florida, Tampa.
APPENDI X
I Am Not a Virus
36
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JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATU RE VOL 5 0 N O 2 FAL L 2024
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