I'm Cindy Yang, a rising senior at Phillips Academy Andover. I'm a writer and storyteller with wide interests in many subjects, including English literature, specifically Romantic and Victorian literature, as well as contemporary queer Chinese literature, biochemistry, flow arts, and more. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and a reader of xianxia and historical Chinese 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'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've won several Regional Awards at the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, as well as being shortlisted for the Means Essay Prize of the English Department at Andover. You can check out some examples of my shorter pieces here or 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), Chinese yoyo-ing (shoutout to Photon at Andover!), playing piano, dancing, doing Chinese paper cutting, watching and editing study vlogs, obsessing over the beautiful masterpiece of Call Me By Your Name, drinking bubble tea, and binging Chinese dramas.
Here is how I'm spending my time this summer:
- the college application grind
- working on a new novel
- working on a research project on danmei as a means of queer resistance in China as a Brace Fellow at Andover
- learning about Victorian Literature and Oscar Wilde
- and practicing piano for my music supplement and the LRSM!
Currently Reading:
- Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 伪装学渣 (Fake Slackers) by 木瓜黄 (Mu Gua Huang)
- 某某 (A Certain Someone) by 木苏里 (Mu Su Li)