“So who can tell me something you know about Chinese New Year?” I would ask every year when I celebrated the holiday with my sixth-grade students, who had been learning Mandarin since kindergarten.

“Chinese people wear red and use firecrackers to scare away the dragon!” one student would answer — every year, even after six years of Mandarin.

That answer always hurt me.

The loong is such an essential part of Chinese culture. It represents spirit, hope, and blessing. To confuse it with the evil Western dragon is like saying angels are bad luck. I know their elementary teachers must have explained the difference, but children don’t always remember explanations — they remember stories.
So I began writing one: I’m a Loong, Not a Dragon.

But a made-up story was not enough for me. I wanted this book to be personal and full of love. I dedicated the book to the K–12 North Shore Mandarin Program, which I have witnessed and helped grow from middle school to high school. I also honored our first elementary Mandarin teacher by using her married name — Ms. Cascella — as the teacher’s name in the book. And most importantly, I chose real children — Gabby, Nathaniel, Ruben, Emily, Julia, and Chris — as the six kids in the story. The photo is of me with them, taken in 2021 when masks were still required, after another win at the NYU Rock That Movie Mandarin Film Competition, as we enjoyed bubble tea together. They were the students in my very first sixth-grade class at North Shore and graduated high school in 2023. They are members of the Mandarin Squad — students who have always been deeply passionate about Mandarin and Chinese culture. I designed the characters in the book based on their real personalities, and Arthur, my illustrator, drew them using their elementary school photos as reference.

Through this story, I am able to stay connected with them.
Through them, the story has a heartbeat.

And now, this story belongs not only to me, but to every child who will grow up knowing that a loong is not something to fear, but something to celebrate.

Because when children learn the right story, they grow into people who see the world with understanding, respect, and wonder.

Posted on January 6, 2026

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