It might seem that creating an epic fantasy novel starring a charming character who portrays intelligence, anxiety, cultural divides from parents, close and diverse friendships, and the magic and myths of a Chinese water goddess would be an impossible task. Gloria L. Huang has done this in her delightful middle grade novel Kaya of the Ocean.
This talented writer brought stories and goddess myths from early childhood, mingled with stories of a tragedy in her family’s past, to a contemporary world in ways that completely engage her readers. But she claims it wasn’t easy. This is a novel that has been in the works for years, possibly in the background of her interests even as a middle grader herself. Huang admits, “I’m one of those annoying people who wanted to be a writer since they were a child—you know, was writing forever. And then I started with writing fictional pieces for literary magazines. So those were largely adult literary fiction, and I still do that. But I really love writing middle grade and young adult because, when I was young, I was also a major reader, especially of middle grade novels.”
Even as an early teen Huang recognized that something was missing. “When I was reading those [childhood novels], there wasn’t a whole lot of diversity. I would fall in love with these stories,” she says, “but not really see anyone who looked like myself, or who had my point of view. So, I think that really played into my wanting to be a middle grade author, allowing me to fold in the diversity that was missing when I was a kid.”
Kaya’s story, a story of growing up Chinese American in Hawaii, is forefront in this novel. A second story of Kaya’s ancestors is interlaced in this novel. That is the story of Shanhu, a child of the Chinese civil war, who is thrown into the water when the ship she travels on is bombed. Huang explains, “I’m Chinese-American, originally Chinese-Canadian, and different parts of the story were loosely inspired by events in my family history. So especially in the historical flashbacks, the story of Shanhu and what happened to her—that was actually loosely based on a tragedy that happened to an acquaintance of my father’s family during the Chinese civil war, and it was almost my aunt who was on the ship that was bombed.”
That story stuck in Huang’s mind, and she wanted to honor that part of history, but also make it fictionalized. “I don’t want to pretend it’s an accurate historical rendering. But there are lots of parts of me in the book.” Huang’s cultural upbringing and family history as well as point of view all filter through this book. “People often use this phrase ‘it’s the book of my heart’, and I kind of feel like that about this book, because it’s just got so many parts of me and people I know in it.”
Even as Huang wrote about the past and the present cultural divide between a middle grader and her parents, she created a depth of current middle grade issues for her main character Kaya. She is the perfect middle grader in so many ways. But Kaya is plagued by anxiety. Like so many young teens, this character shows how they can be smart, and scared at the same time. Huang says these are the nuances that she really agonized over and thought about. “It was really important to me to try to capture an experience sensitively and authentically. I don’t want to say it’s everyone’s experience, but an experience of anxiety. And that was really why I wanted to make sure Kaya had layers.” Huang admits, “it’s loosely based a little bit on my own experiences with anxiety and those of different people in my life, especially children. And I found that there’s a correlation between kids and adults who maybe feel different kinds of pressures, whether it’s insecurity or a pressure to be perfect, with this higher level of anxiety.”
When Huang began writing this novel, we were just emerging from the pandemic, and Huang witnessed a lot of children very close to her, who were encountering anxiety for the first time, and not really knowing how to deal with it. “So I really wanted to create a character who was layered and nuanced. Who was accomplished and together in some ways of her life, in some areas of her life, but also struggling in a very real way in others, because that’s what I was seeing. That’s what I was feeling.” This depth of character morphed from there. “I really wanted to write a story where this main character had these anxieties she sees as flaws. But then [anxiety and, specifically, the fear of the ocean] kind of becomes part of her superpower when she learns to accept all parts of herself.”
That anxiety plays out in Kaya’s relationships with her parents and with her friends. “When I was writing it, I saw friendship as being really important in Kaya’s life, and actually as part of her journey. I think, later on the book, she kind of discovers that the fact she’s not alone helps her deal with her anxiety. That sometimes, being with her friends, helps fight it.” The inner voices in Kaya’s mind and her inner turmoil are partly influenced by the fact she’s in an age range where the focus starts shifting from family to friends. It’s also a time when you can’t always be friends with the opposite gender. Huang explains, “There’s all kinds of dynamics, and there’s all kinds of new pressures at play. I really wanted to show the kind of complicated friendships and relationships kids can have, and that sometimes they fight, sometimes they have conflict, sometimes they’re strained. But at heart, I wanted to show they can be so supportive and caring, and they become a huge part of a child’s life at that age.”
Already demonstrating the complexity of this age, Huang also brought in the history and myths of Chinese American culture through the power teens can gain from realizing how ancestors survived tragedies. Mazu, the patron goddess of sailors, fishermen, and travelers plays into the realism of this novel flawlessly with the additional power of feminist strength around water and a patron to immigrants who have traveled across oceans to immigrate to the United States.
Huang found Mazu to be a fascinating persona and looked into her history, a history of a girl who loved to read and didn’t learn to swim until she was much older, only to become a deity that protects oceangoing travelers. “I think she just has this really rich history starting from when she was a little girl to when she grows up to be an adult woman, and then when she becomes a deity. I’ve always found her so intriguing, because I think, for one thing, she’s this strong female figure that … rose to deification and worship before it was common for strong female figures to exist in that space.”
Huang felt this would be a cool angle to explore. She wrote much of the story and the outline and had done a base level of research into Mazu’s history that found its way into this novel. Of course that led to more research. “A lot of the history Kaya and her friends discover about Mazu actually comes from the research I did.” Like Mazu, Kaya is portrayed as a strong reader but not yet a strong swimmer. Huang says, “I think it worked out perfectly, because I really wanted to create this story in which you have this amazing kind of goddess, this ancient mythological history. But I wanted to transplant it onto the life of this young girl who’s struggling with anxiety in modern times to see how that could flow.”
Finally, Huang wove in the parent/daughter relationship showing Kaya recognizing her parents love her very much and she loves them. But that relationship is not without conflict. Kaya recognizes her parents aren’t helping with her anxiety. She’s not butting heads with them. She’s trying to figure them out. And it’s her disappointment instead of her anger that Kaya acts upon. While there’s a sense that this inability to confront mental health issues is a first-generation immigrant perspective, many teens will relate to the parents’ struggle with facing these issues that their children might suffer from.
“Stepping back a little, there is a universal tendency, I think, for all parents, regardless of culture, to want and hope so desperately for the best for their kids,” Huang says. “I think that can sometimes end up in a bit of denial when there’s something that could be causing problems for their children or in their children. But I did feel that, at least in my experience, it’s especially true for some immigrant Asian parents. There’s kind of this cultural fear that if you give voice to something like this, it might make it worse or make it real. So, there’s this cultural tendency to avoid discussing major issues or bringing them out in the open.” Instead, Kaya’s parents are kind of just sweeping it aside and pretending it’s not real, and having that be the course of action.
Huang wanted to show how this mindset, even if it comes from a place of deep love and protectiveness, can actually make a child, like Kaya, feel even more isolated and alone, and it accidentally could reinforce her fear that there’s something wrong with her. Huang hopes readers come away with the message that while this fear or denial is “coming from a place of deep love and protectiveness,” it’s important for the parents and child to talk about what’s happening and bring the issues to the surface in order to start the process of acceptance.
She wants to thank readers for picking up this novel and reading it, and she hopes those who might be struggling with any part of themselves, whether it’s anxiety or something else, would come away with knowing there’s power in accepting all parts of who they are, and all parts of themselves. “Anything they see as flaws or weaknesses actually makes up this whole beautiful picture of who they are.” In the book, Kaya’s dad refers to this Chinese expression that says things are more beautiful when they’re imperfect or broken. “I would love for that to be the message readers of KAYA take from the novel.
While Kaya of the Ocean is Huang’s first middle grade novel, she has a wealth of short story publications and published essays, and she plans to write more for middle graders. “I write to create worlds that I want to get lost in, that I want to explore. I write to create the kind of people I want to meet in my life (or meet again, if I’ve met them already). I write to explore or release any dreams or nightmares or demons I’m struggling with. It helps to kind of put them on the page for me. Personally, I write if I’m trying to understand a different situation. And then I also just write to send messages out, hopefully to other readers, but also just to the ether, if that makes sense.”
“I feel like I’ve always had this irresistible need to tell stories. And then I’m also so inspired by things I hear or read, or see, or experience, the people in my life I love and care about. They all inspire me. So, I really think that, if you read my writing, you can often see parts of them.” In her experience of writing about those she’s met, Huang concludes, “Everything’s like a secret love letter to them.”
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