I'm Cindy Yang, a rising 11th grader at Phillips Academy Andover. I'm a writer and storyteller with wide interests in many subjects, including the LGBTQ+ movement in the U.S. and China, programming, English and Chinese literature, physics and astronomy, chemistry, and more. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and a reader of xianxia fiction, I'm focused on normalizing and positively portraying LGBTQ+ relationships and characters in short stories and books written loosely in the genre of Chinese xianxia, like my latest novel, The Scent of the Orchid in a Forest of Secrets. I also enjoy programming and computer science, and I enjoy tackling programming problems from contests like USACO.
I'm a writer. Ever since I was little, I've loved reading, and that's since transferred into a love for writing similar stories to the ones that filled me with joy and promise. I write because I want to explore the hidden corners of humanity, to illuminate what can give us hope and to point out areas of change. I write mostly xianxia or wuxia novels, but I also write fantasy or YA short stories, and the occasional personal essay and research paper as I wish. I have published some of my writing in my middle school's literary magazine, the Pike Press, as well as in one of my high school's literary magazines, The Pariah, and I won a Regional Silver Key at the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for my personal essay, "The Benefit of a Second Chance". You can check out some examples of my shorter pieces here or some of my older writing and my newest novel on Wattpad. I am also a Prose editor for another one of my school's literary magazines, The Courant.
Other than writing, I like to spend my time learning new things, reading (check out my reading list), programming, Chinese yoyo-ing (shoutout to Photon at Andover for making yoyo possible for me!), playing piano, dancing, doing Chinese paper cutting, watching and editing study vlogs, obsessing over the beautiful masterpiece of Call Me By Your Name, translating Chinese xianxia novels into English, occasionally composing music, drinking bubble tea, enjoying tea in general, and binging Chinese dramas.
Right now, I'm enjoying a month of leisure during summer before a busy August, exploring some ideas for a new novel, getting back into reading a lot, catching up on editing my study vlogs, and preparing for the ARSM piano exam.
Currently Reading:
- The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- De Profundis by Oscar Wilde