Hi everyone and happy Chinese New Year (if you celebrate it)! If you remember, last year I wrote a post similar to this one. I really loved being able to compile a list of Asian characters so I decided to do it again this year. Last year, I really had the list limited to people of East Asia so this year, I expanded the characters a bit to cover more parts of Asia.

Sadly, Asians are still so under-represented in the YA community and I really hope that I can come back next year and be able to say something along the lines of "Wow, I had a lot of trouble choosing characters this year." Diversity is still such a fragile thing and we're still very much working on more diverse books. It's getting better but Asians are still definitely under-represented (and that's for shows and movies too *cough*). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post, have yourself a nice Saturday (or Chinese New Year if you celebrate!) and find yourself a new diverse book from this post.

Mercy // Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee
Every time I think of books that include Asian or Chinese characters in a book, Outrun the Moon is the first book that comes into mind. I love Stacey Lee and this one has got to be my favorite book of hers. It's about a Chinese girl navigating her way through the 1906 earthquake of San Francisco and issues like discrimination play a pretty large part in Outrun the Moon. I think this book has such a great variety of ethnicities within its group of characters and Chinese characters are definitely involved.

Daniel // The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
The Sun is Also a Star is such a cute book and I loved it so much. One of the main characters, Daniel, is Korean and I think Nicola not only did a great job with including a really diverse set of characters in her book, but also made parents a thing in her YA book. (*gasp* parents!) This book was so fabulous and I loved reading it also knowing that Nicola had added another Asian character into the small pool of other Asian characters that exist in YA. And also Koreans? Yes.

Mimosa // The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
Another Stacey Lee book! Surprise! The Secret of a Heart Note is Stacey's most recent release and is another super cute read. It's different compared to her previous two books but that didn't change the fact that Stacey is an amazing writer who always has the best (diverse) characters. I was so delighted to see that she included multiple POC in her books. Mimosa was Chinese and although that didn't change much in her story, I'm so glad that Stacey just doesn't write books with characters that are all white.

Zu // The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
One of my more recent reads! If you don't know The Darkest Minds was published about 5 years ago and if you also didn't know, within the past few years diversity has been a really big issue around the blogging community. For so long, so many books had all white characters and what I love about this trilogy is despite the fact that it was published before the big conversations of diversity started, Alexandra has diversity. Zu, (aka Eleven 1.0) is Korean (I believe) and she is such a great character. A quiet one but I love the relationship she has with the other characters. So happy to be able to include her on this list.

Inej // Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Inej, my precious Inej. The Six of Crows duology is definitely one of my favorite series and I love the diversity it has in its characters despite the fact that it is indeed a fantasy. I am not positive on whether it's directly written what race she is portrayed as but she does come from a place where people resemble people of East Asia so I went ahead and included her in the list. She is such a fabulous character and I really love reading about her culture.

Maya + Gauri // The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
Roshani Chokshi last year published her fabulous debut The Star Touched Queen, a Persephone x Hades retelling with Indian characters. The spin-off novel for her The Star Touched Queen releases in the next coming months and I really enjoyed it. Indian culture has a pretty big effect on these books as Indian myths do have an influence on the story and plot. Roshani's characters and plot make her books so great but the fact that her books are diverse make them so much better.

So tell me: What are some books you've read with Asian characters?