Xiran Jay Zhao - Tumblr Posts

So I just finished Iron Widow like. An hour ago. And oh my GOD. It's DitF if it was peak like 😭😭 first of all, the fact that there was an ACTUAL love triangle??? Love. LOVEEEEEE LOVE LOVE. But I think my favorite thing about the book is that there was no "redemption" for Zetian. She wasn't tamed. She wasn't made to bow down to authority. She wasn't "softened." She BECAME Female Rage. She encapsulated it. And yet, she still has a heart. She still cares for Yizhi. She still cares for Shimin. But love doesn't "tame" her. Love makes her stronger and I LOVE that so much 😭 I love that she gets to be morally dubious and damn near insane like YES. YES !!!!! YES. AND I LOVE THAT YIZHI AND SHIMIN ARE BASICALLY LIKE "go wifey we love you so much ♡" through most of the book 😭. I love that she had to use a cane or a wheelchair but this didn't diminish her power or worth as a person. I love that Shimin and Yizhi never try to control her, but they work with her. I loved Yizhi and Shimin's little interactions so much before they kissed. Like I was literally losing it to my friends like "GUYS. GUYS I'M NOT CRAZY. GUYS." And I wasn't and I was SO happy. I love that Zetian never forgives her family. Good. Fuck em ♡ I LOVE this book. (I literally wrote half a fic the day I read the hospital scene 😭 and now I need to write fluff of the triangle cooking together cuz the ending SHATTERED me.) I'm so so SO excited for the sequel this December. And the author is INCREDIBLE. They're so cool 😭 I've seen a few of their shorts on YouTube and I've been meaning to read this book since senior year (so like. A year, give or take a couple months) and now that I've read it?? UGH. AMAZING. AMAZINGGGGG.

I think my favorite part of the book, bar none, was Sima Yi freaking out: “Wait, you two haven’t fucked yet?!? No fucking wonder shit’s not working, I will deadass stop everything right now so you guys can go bang it out, I sincerely cannot overstate how important it is that you go get dicked down immediately”

“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!

Guess who got disqualified from the Hugo Awards for unclear, most possibly political reasons!!

Award admin Dave McCarty's response to people asking why:

But this email is apparently just bouncing everything back so here's the full list of the admin team:

Guess who got disqualified from the Hugo Awards for unclear, most possibly political reasons!!

Award admin Dave McCarty's response to people asking why:

But this email is apparently just bouncing everything back so here's the full list of the admin team:

Watch "On Anti-Asian Hate Crimes - And How You Can Help #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate" on YouTube

Hey! If you could stop scrolling for a bit and watch this video that'd be awesome! This is a very important issue for me bc I'm Filipino, so if you could watch, share, and maybe donate it would really mean a lot :]

It makes me sick to think that as a female brown Asian I am potentially more at risk of hate crimes like these. Please help to spread awareness and let's all educate ourselves, because even I wasn't aware of this stuff.

Thanks so much for your time

French Revolution

So I decided to research the French Revolution as I'm hoping to write a book set in france at that time period. Anyways, I was like, Wheres a good source of information?

And my mind supplied my favourite author, Xiran Jay Zhao.

Cannoically obsessed with Robespierre. Checked out their Tumblr blog,

ABUNDANCE

Guess who got disqualified from the Hugo Awards for unclear, most possibly political reasons!!

Award admin Dave McCarty's response to people asking why:

But this email is apparently just bouncing everything back so here's the full list of the admin team:

ok im gonna eat BUT THIS GIRL ON TWITTER

shes chinese and also like a chinese historian and she watched the live action mulan 

the way she had me crying through this thread because its apparently V bad

like. 

its trying v hard to be historically accurate but theyre using terms/concepts that chinese people would NOT

and the battle scenes are bad please 

remind me to link it later, but oh my god

the pain she was in is like clearly felt through the tweets shes so upset

oh hey Xiran Jay Zhao

I think they should make a mech that’s controlled by two pilots, like in Pacific Rim, but they have to be lezzing out hardcore or the mech doesn’t work. The more you moan into each others tongues and feel the electric buzz of each others sweat the better you fight. Today I’m here on shark tank to present the Yurimech, and I’m looking for 10 billion dollars for a 0%stake in my company. Thakn you

soooo, on a vacation trip a week ago, I stumbled over @xiranjayzhao's Iron Widow in a book shop in Copenhagen and devoured it last weekend. It was quite the fun read. (And I am not that inclined to mechs 😄 but the rage filled female power fantasy and the setting felt rather refreshing to me) And after finishing the book I had to get at least some art out of my system. As usual it didn't end up what I really intended it to be in my head initially, but also, as usual it has to suffice for now or I'll never post it.

having a ball up in this b tch 🤪