For fans of young adult fiction, a blend of fantasy, history, and mythology can create a rich tapestry of adventure and wonder. During a panel hosted by Macmillan’s Fierce Reads moderated by myself, we celebrated four female Asian authors who have mastered this blend, bringing to life enchanting stories that capture the reader’s attention while providing a much-needed worldview: that of lesser-traversed Eastern myths and histories.
Meet The Authors and Their Inspiration
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Joan He is the bestselling author of “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” and “Descendant of the Crane,” which was her young adult debut novel. Her most recent release “Sound the Gong” is the second half of the Kingdom of Three duology, accompanied by “Strike the Zither.” Together, the novels are a retelling of the Chinese historical fiction “Three Kingdoms,” by Luo Guanzhong. He’s duology follows Zephyr, a strategist who has to help her warlordess Ren fight her way to victory. Of the three warring kingdoms, they are the weakest army, but Zephyr is the smartest of all the strategists and might have more than a few tricks up her sleeve.
Now writing from Chicago, He studied psychology and Chinese history at the University of Pennsylvania. She had read an abridged version of “Three Kingdoms” — the unabridged version is over 800,000 words — in a college seminar and she wanted to reimagine the story with a female protagonist and provide a twist that subverts expectations, which surprisingly is not too different from the source itself.
“The funny thing is I’d always known about these characters growing up even as a diasporic Chinese, like the names of these figures… They are so steeped in the history and the culture to mythical proportions so that everyone knows about them, but not everyone has read [the novel],” she explained. “Being introduced to the text for the first time at the time of reading it, I [found it] interesting…
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