In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are highlighting stories written by Asian and Pacific Islander authors. Today's interview is with SereinChoo, whose story was featured on APIFantasy. 

About the Author: First, while she doesn't understand Chinese/Mandarin, she fell in love with Chinese myths, dramas, and novels and that developed into writing her own stories. She started actively writing in college when she met another friend who had the same passion.It sparked more interest since he taught her a lot and they exchanged a lot of ideas. That's when she challenged herself and from scribbles to short stories, up till now as she writes longer and more complex stories, expanding her repertoire and learning along the way.

About 'Empty Crown': A story of a deity, who gave everything she had for the humans she loves. Granting their unlimted greed with her powers until there was no more and was abandoned yet her love for them never ceased. Fallen from grace, she continued to help them in other ways and in her long life, she meet a little boy. Helping him, spending their days together, slowly his prescence made her realize something.A story of humans, deities and demons.Who is the actual demon? Find out more in the story!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I fall under the term 'banana', a local slang here in Malaysia for Chinese people who can't speak Mandarin, but I fell in love with Chinese myths, dramas, and novels but since there aren't enough materials in English, I decided to write them myself. I think I am more of a reader than a writer so my stories/writing only started around college where I found a friend who would write together with me. From there, I challenged myself and wrote my first longest novel, ZuoMeng: To Dream.

2. How do you identify within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and how has your heritage shaped the person you are today?

Heritage is important, it tells the root of a person, and the root is the place where they belong and identifies itself. A person can choose to be who they can, but they cannot deny the place which they are.

3. Does your family have any traditions that are important to you? Feel free to share at least one experience here!

As a Chinese Family, all Chinese celebrations are important especially those on Chinese New Year (CNY) where we follow certain rules to avoid black luck such as, not washing your hair, wearing bright colours, no sweeping the floor. No bad language and many more. As a child I didn't quite understand the meaning behind these actions but slowly, I learned, and I started appreciating these traditions. I think it's amazing how these verbal traditions would be inherited from one generation to another throughout the Chinese culture. 

4. If you could introduce something from your culture to someone else, what would it be and why? It can be a tradition/custom, food, music, or anything else that comes to mind!

No better way to learn of a culture through food, traditional CNY cookies are a must - pineapple tarts, dragon cookies, Chinese dumplings, noodles, Chinese dishes – Hakka braised pork, steam fish with ginger and scallion, roast duck, and mooncakes and maybe wearing our traditional Cheongsam while listening to traditional instruments playing at the background. Er Hu gives off an interesting sound – although it's mostly very sad haha.

5. What does AAPI Heritage Month mean to you?

A month to celebrate and be proud of the roots which you came from.

6. How do your experiences as an AAPI author shape your stories? Do you take inspiration from your culture to tell your story? You may talk about 1-2 stories here.

Definitely, I draw inspirations from those myths and legends. I am always fascinated by deities and demons, yaos, and spirits from young. Which is the reason, in my stories, there's a fantasy element in them. In ZuoMeng, there's an appearance of a yao which terrorizes the people and in Empty Crown, it's a story probing deeper into the relationship of humans, demons and deities. 

7. What is your favorite myth or legend? Why?

Sun Wukong is definitely one of my favorites. He is a legend, the story telling of his journey from birth, his will and determination to fight against Heaven's rules and latter of how he realized his mistakes and went on a journey together with the monk to get the sutra to help others. The ups and downs of his story just make it legendary.

8. If you could have the same powers as a creature and/or deity from mythology or legends, what would it be? Why?

Hmm, I would like to have the same powers as a dragon. The ability to control water and rain which I think would help so many people, the ability to fly in the sky, living in the clouds or in the water. 

9. What is your advice for other writers who want to use mythology in their story?

Do your research before embarking on such a journey - as others who have read the story before would make a lot of comparisons and fact check your story. 

That's it for the month, it was fun getting to know about SereinChoo. You can check her stories featured in our reading list as well as her other works. If you're interested in learning more about other AAPI authors, check out Myth & Legend's AAPIHM reading list here.