‘Tis The Season: Authors Talk Holidays is a special seasonal feature on Pop! Goes The Reader in which some of my favourite authors help me to celebrate the spirit of the season and spread a little holiday cheer. So, pour yourself a cup of hot chocolate and snuggle in by the fireside as they answer the question: “What does the holiday season mean to you?”
About Katie Zhao
Katie Zhao is the author of the Chinese-inspired middle grade fantasy The Dragon Warrior and its sequel, The Fallen Hero. She’s also the author of the forthcoming Asian American young adult thriller How We Fall Apart. Katie grew up in Michigan, where there was little for her to do besides bury her nose in a good book or a writing journal. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in English and a minor in political science; she also completed her master’s in accounting there. In her spare time, Katie enjoys reading, singing, dancing (badly), and checking out new Instagram-worthy restaurants. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The holiday season has always been an interesting time for me. A time to relax and unwind. A time to celebrate and eat excellent food. A time to really examine the cultural differences between American and Chinese holidays, and the unique fusion of culture that’s so central to my Chinese American identity.
Almost everyone loves this time of the year, because they get precious time off to celebrate with amazing food and see loved ones that they don’t usually see year-round. During the holidays, people talk about throwing family parties where they invite all their extended relatives, even the weird barefoot uncle nobody’s quite sure where he fits in the family tree. For me, though, huge family gatherings have never been the case. Only my immediate family live in the states. The rest are in China, and it’s too expensive to fly there or have them fly here. I’ve only been back to visit my extended relatives in China twice in my whole life. In fact, I don’t even know most of them. So as you can imagine, watching American holiday movies and seeing how American friends celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with extended relatives draws a sharp contrast to how my Chinese family celebrates these holidays.
This time of the year has always been a stark reminder of the vastly different experiences I’ve had as a Chinese diaspora living in the states. That’s not to say that it’s a sad time of year, though – just very different. Where other families stuff turkeys and bake pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner, my family often likes to celebrate the holiday in a Chinese American fusion fashion. For example, we might swap out turkey for roast duck, pumpkin pie for nián gāo (sticky rice cake). It’s been our family’s tradition to mix our Chinese culture into an American context. While I wasn’t thrilled about that as a child when all I wanted was to eat stuffed turkey and cranberry sauce like all the “normal” (read: American) kids, now that I’m older I’m really not mad about it. I mean, Chinese food is just *chef’s kiss* god tier.
During Christmas, my family doesn’t really do extravagant dinners or festivities like the celebrations we see on TV, but when I was a kid my parents still played along with pretending to be Santa Claus and giving their children gifts. In non-COVID times, we’d also take vacation time to travel across the U.S., and could usually be found visiting one Chinatown or another over Christmas break and New Year’s.
But my favorite memories of the holidays have always been about “Asian parties.” Some of my fellow Asians know what I’m talking about. Essentially, an “Asian party” is a gathering among the small group of family friends who immigrated from China with my parents. These families go way back, and many of them even went to school together in China. Because of their unique situation of immigrating to the states together to create a better life for their families, starting over from scratch in a totally foreign culture, it’s as though they’re tied by an invisible bond. As a result, their kids grew up around each other, and though we all lived in different towns in the metro-Detroit area, we were good friends and always had a blast when we got to see each other for the holidays. These “Asian parties” are a special part of my childhood holidays that speak uniquely to an Asian diaspora upbringing. When I think of the holidays, I think of my immediate family and our family friends, gathering and celebrating in the most Chinese American way.
Happy holidays, friends. The pandemic in 2020 means many of us won’t get to see family and friends, but I hope that you’ll still be able to have a safe, socially distanced celebration this year.
Title How We Fall Apart
Author Katie Zhao
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Publication Date August 3rd 2021 by Bloomsbury YA
Find It On Bloomsbury ● Goodreads ● Amazon.ca ● Chapters ● The Book Depository ● IndieBound
In a YA thriller that is Crazy Rich Asians meets One of Us is Lying, students at an elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets when their ex-best friend turns up dead.
Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends – Krystal, Akil, and Alexander – are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.
They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.
Katie Zhao’s YA debut is an edge-of-your-seat drama set in the pressure-cooker world of academics and image at Sinclair Prep, where the past threatens the future these teens have carefully crafted for themselves. How We Fall Apart is the irresistible, addicting, Asian-American recast of Gossip Girl that we’ve all been waiting for.
