Janie Chang - Asian Heritage Month

NOTE: If you purchase your ticket after 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 29 please contact Kim Gough with your confirmation number in order to receive your Zoom link. 

May is Asian Heritage Month and The Jade Phoenix Club have partnered with the Royal BC Museum to have BC author Janie Chang for an online webinar about her latest novel The Library of Legends. Set in 1937 at the start of China’s war with Japan, it speaks to the importance of preserving cultural legacies, well-suited to the theme of heritage. Based on historical events, the novel follows the students of a Chinese university as they become refugees, fleeing to the interior of China as Japanese forces invade. But they are not making the journey only to save themselves – they carry with them a priceless collection of ancient books known as The Library of Legends which they must safeguard during this thousand-mile journey on foot.

The novel is also based on family history; Chang’s father and uncle were among those whose schools were forced to relocate during the mass evacuation of Chinese universities, a chapter in history not well-known outside of China. Many of the stories her father recounted about this time found their way into the novel.

Chang will talk about The Library of Legends and the true events behind the novel, her father’s experiences, as well as the process of research and how it affected her story. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

For Asian Heritage Month we encourage you to order that evening from your favourite Chinese restaurant.  At the online event, if you message us with the name of the restaurant that you are enjoying take out from, we will enter your name for a prize!

If you would like to add an autographed book and have it delivered to your home in the Capital Region please use this link to get more information. 

About the author:
Janie Chang writes historical fiction that draws from a family history with 36 generations of recorded genealogy. Her novels have been inspired by stories about life in a small Chinese town and tales of ancestors who encountered dragons, ghosts, and immortals. Her first novel, THREE SOULS, was a finalist for the BC Book Prizes Fiction Award and her second, DRAGON SPRINGS ROAD, was a Globe and Mail national bestseller. Both were nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her third book, THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS, released in May 2020, was a Book of the Month Club selection in the USA and also a Globe and Mail bestseller.