You Can Either Let This Journey Crush You, Or Let It Transform You Into Someone Stronger.

“You can either let this journey crush you, or let it transform you into someone stronger.”

A scene from the newly-released, New-York-Times-bestselling (?!) book Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, art by 最后的L and water effects by me! 🤗

Honestly, Zachary Ying is a book I didn’t think I’d have the strength to write. The concept is very wild and wacky, yes—the First Emperor of China possessing a young Chinese American boy’s AR gaming headset and compelling him on a journey across China to heist magical artifacts—but writing the story required me to dig deep into my complicated relationship with my heritage.

When I immigrated to Canada in 6th grade, I spent a year as the only Asian kid in the school of a small town. In that one year, I became self-conscious of all sorts of things that didn’t seem to matter before: the way I looked, the way I spoke, the clothes I wore, the media I liked. The white kids wouldn’t insult me outright, but they’d ask me questions that made me embarrassed of my differences from them. I felt backward, alien. The feelings of isolation and rejection I experienced took me many, many years to unpack. It’s been a long journey, learning to love myself again, and I drew much strength from stories in Chinese history to do so.

However, as the years passed, I’ve also watched in horror as the government of China became increasingly authoritarian, cracking down on dissent and committing genocidal atrocities against minority ethnic groups, of which I belong to one myself. Being Chinese has become so painfully political. Pride in Chinese culture is no longer as simple as that, but could accidentally play into the Chinese government’s use of traditional culture as propaganda. Yet on another hand, there’s the necessity of demystifying and defending Chinese culture to combat anti-Chinese racism. Many diaspora like myself are caught in the crosshairs, struggling to find the balance. But what I firmly believe is that traditional Chinese culture and history don’t belong to the Chinese government. It belongs to the Chinese people, both native and diaspora. If we distance ourselves from our heritage specifically because of the Chinese government, that’s letting them win, validating their claim to be the one true representative of Chinese culture when that is absolutely not the case.

Through Zack’s journey in this book, I wanted to engage with the complexities of Chinese identity, but I also want to have fun. This book remains a love letter to my 12-year-old self, taking inspiration from everything I love—anime, video games, sci-fi, and of course, Chinese history and myths. You’ll find appearances by real figures from said history and myths, wielding magic inspired by their legends, along with many famous Chinese artifacts.

If any of that sounds fun to you too, especially if you like Percy Jackson or Yugioh, I really think you’d like this book as well 😩✌🏼 You can find out where to get it at ZacharyYing.com!

Something I made while dealing with my own stuff and hoping drawing this would pick me up somehow. Maybe it worked.

FT my cat. His name is Mischief

drink up.

no, i swear, it's water.

why would i ever

poison you

see? I'm drinking mine too

not a drop left in my glass

see?

you're tiring, you know that?

it's exhausting to constantly write about you

i hope you find solace

in the glass

at least yours will taste like mint

and alcohol

your favourite flavours.

mine tasted like my tears

and a bit bitter

too.

it's a weird aftertaste.

i wonder what socrates'

tasted like.

and what they burried him with

he never wrote anything,

anyway.

so what did he journey

hades with?

he couldn't have gone

empty handed.

that's not good manners

you taught me that.

here, take this paper

write down your name

or your favourtie colour

you don't have one, i know

but you can write down

any

colour

i don't know your handwriting

isn't that sad?

how do your r's curl

and your t's cross?

mine is a carbon copy of hers

i say that cause i know

you don't know mine

either

like you don't know

your favourite colour

or mine

or how the drink tasted

it takes years to brew,

you know

it takes years to reach this point

i hope you never

reach it

like you never reach me

like you never know

your favourite colour

or mine

come on, write down

your name

or how good your drink was

or that you love me

or don't

you know i never say it back

i need to learn

your handwriting

to see it now and know it's yours

write something down

on the paper

please

they need to have something

to burry us with

before the drinks kick in.

handwriting

𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 © 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙭𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙤𝙤𝙣

𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙙

Friendly reminder that this blog is pro-choice and if you don’t think everyone should have full control of their own body, then kindly unfollow me right now and go to hell

Hold him close like Big Floppa !