Street Literature

Today's presentation about Street Literature gave me great introduction of definition, issues and balancing ideas. It also reminded me of my childhood and teen years where Manga culture was such a big part of reading and fun.
Kids and teens in countries like Korea (where I grew up), and Japan, Manga means something much more than one genre of pleasure reading. We all grew up reading it years and years. If one kid buys a series, it was passed along to the entire class, and especially girls were spending a lot of time copying and drawing them and giving them away among themselves.
Manga was, indeed, a most dominant form of Street Lit over there. Despite it's strengths - easy and fun to read, teen- centered plots and themes- Manga was not always well received. Adults- parents and teachers- always had issues with thier children and students reading Manga, because they didn't think of it as one of of literature, and thought of it as dumb story telling book only for lazy and reluctant readers. Often times, we had to hide them from adults and read them in secret.
That attitude made us feel quilty about reading mangas, and overall made us feel like we're losers as readers.
Having experienced that, it's very touching to see how well the genre is received in the US as one of the most popular reading materials. I think that's possibly what is happening with Street Literature.
Despite some reasonable criticism- lack of literary strengths, description of violence, crime, and stereotypes- Street Lit. deserves to be paid attention, especially if that helps children and teens develop joy of reading. Its counter-culture like and off-maintream nature is also a great outlet for those underrepresented and also those who find pleasure in those contents. Having witnessed how Manga has evolved and settled as a favored genre, I'm looking forward to the future of Street Lit.