British Fantasy Awards Shortlists". Archived from the original on 20 September 2022 . Retrieved 20 September 2022. Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao's second novel, was released on 10 May 2022. [5] In an interview with CBC, Zhao highlighted their fascination with "genre crossovers". [6] Zhao stated that: a b Armstrong, Vanessa (11 May 2022). "Here Are the Finalists for the 2022 Locus Awards". Tor.com . Retrieved 12 May 2022. Koehler, Mimi (20 September 2021). "Q&A: Xiran Jay Zhao, Author of 'Iron Widow' ". The Nerd Daily . Retrieved 24 October 2021. Okay, so there are legends basically everyone in a culture knows. Like Americans and their Batman and George Washington. For us in China, it’s Qin Shi Huang and Tang Taizong. We all know who they are and the legendary stuff they did. Them being in the minds of so many people generation after generation is what makes their spirits so powerful.”

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor (Paperback) - Waterstones

The Proud Elite: All of the emperors. They draw power from their legend and thus talking it up does serve a purpose, but they are very full of themselves in general and frequently boast about how amazing they were while putting down the other emperors. I had the idea to riff off of Yu-Gi-Oh, which was a really formative media franchise when I was growing up. I got the idea of the First Emperor of China, which I was really obsessed with because his story is so fascinating. What if he possessed a little kid and then sent him to China on an adventure? [...] Yu-Gi-Oh does a lot of crossover between technology and magic, so that's what I did in Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor. The First Emperor possesses this kid's AR gaming headset [...]. So then I basically wrote a book based on that. [6] Zhao, Xiran Jay (10 May 2022). Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781665900706 . Retrieved 24 October 2021. Disappeared Dad: Zachary's father spoke out against Uyghur oppression, and the Chinese government had him executed as a terrorist.As Zachary Ying is a children's/middle-grade book, I expected it to be content with the emperors' spirits and the fun side of their legends and histories, however it took the story a step further towards greatness by challenging them. It didn't ignore their cruelties and the horrors of their reigns. I really appreciated this and thought it was incredibly well done, I loved that Zhao didn't dumb it down just because it's a children's book. Kids are much smarter than you think and can appreciate complexities and nuance like this, too. Qin Shi Huang had the engineers of his tomb killed so they could never reveal the death traps to someone else. Fusu summons their spirits, who are more than happy to guide him through them. There were certain elements added that didn’t bring anything important in terms of the plot and overall story structure. I wasn’t sure what elements were fundamental and what I should be paying close attention to. There were lots of characters introduced in this story and this was a major detriment to the story because I would spend so much time remembering who they were and then they never showed up again. By focusing on a few characters, we could have dug deeper into their stories which would make it overall less confusing. 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. way too fast-paced, it was hard to understand what was going on and to picture the scenes most of the time

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor - Wikipedia

I just absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on this book. I am admittedly extremely partial to Xiran's work, which is so inspired by their experiences as Chinese diaspora and the struggles in reclaiming that part of our identities, all things that resonate with me too well. Laser-Guided Amnesia: Since revealing the existence of spirits and magic would be really inconvenient to both their quest and the world at large, the protagonists carry diluted Meng Po broth in spray bottles. Full broth makes people forget their entire life, but a spritz of the diluted stuff only makes them forget the last hour.MacGuffin: The heirloom seal, a legendary and long lost symbol of the power of the Chinese emperors. Touching it will grant the three emperors the power to reseal the gates to the spirit realm. also - i’m not a gamer myself and was totally surprised by how much i adored the way zhao interfaced video games, augmented reality, history, and fantastical worldbuilding - all of it became much more accessible and interesting as a blended collective. this eclectic mixture of subjects also showcased zhao’s pitch-perfect deadpan humour, pop culture references, and passion for and knowledge about chinese history - it is epic, to say the least. not to mention, the legend magic at the crux of the worldbuilding felt unique and progressive and utterly compelling. though some of the explanations verged toward info-dumping, this was balanced by the entertaining way in which zhao delivered the details: through witty character profiles (like pop-ups you’d see in a video game), sarcasm-infused storytelling, and rapid-fire banter.