chinese-inspired fantasy
it's all about the ✨ aesthetic ✨
(some other emojis that didn't make the cut: 🥡🥢🐲🧧🏮)
created by ruiconteur
last updated May, 2026
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disclaimer: i was initially never going to make this list, but shen tao's recent twitter/x thread about cultural accuracy in her debut novel pissed me off, so here we are. these books were chosen solely for how they represented chinese culture, not for the quality of writing, so please don't argue with me in the comments about how good these books are. book recommendations are welcome as always, but i will most likely add books by chinese/sinophone authors only after reading them for myself. of course, the criteria will be much less strict for books by white authors; i haven't read many of these, so please do recommend any you can think of!
anyway, if you'd like to know more about why i've chosen these books specifically, i have reviews that go into more detail for most of them. the poppy war made it in solely for the fact that the provinces are named after the zodiac animals, and linghun for the absolutely ridiculous character names in it (i.e. 天气 tianqi / weather). as for legend of the white snake, i’ll have to direct you to my friend @lingsquared's review here instead, because she sent me a picture of one page and i decided i was better off for not having read it myself.
p.s. unfortunately, none of lisa see's books can be classified under the fantasy genre, but please consider her an honorary member of this list anyway
Wait rui can you do good ones?! That’s what I want in my life 😭😭
I’m assuming these are all ones you didn’t like lmao
i would love to but i currently only have 1.5 books that can make it onto that list 💀 they're she who became the sun and a song to drown rivers for the record (the second book is the 0.5 as you might suspect. it's very inaccurate for the specific time period but for a generic idea of ancient china it's tolerable)
also i should say that these are solely books that were originally written in english!! chinese-language fantasy books are ofc excellent
😭😭 Well She Who Became the Sun is actually next up on my list lol so I’ll go with that (I didn’t like A Song to Drown Rivers for other reasons)
I would love to be able to read the Chinese ones but I definitely can’t 😭😭
fair!! i didn't really like it either haha, but swbts was wonderful
i mean, a lot of danmei has been translated, but the translations are of varying quality (which you might've seen me complaining about haha)
Lmao i know she’s not here but fuck Lisa see. All my homies hate Lisa see.
i’m so glad you and rui have both mentioned Lisa See cause i read one book of hers (pre-knowing anything about her) liked it, then read a review of one of her other books recently (unfortunately don’t remember who wrote it, but it was on PB) and was like oh… OH
Cinder was a jumpscare for me lol - of all the books mentioned, this one barely has a sliver from what I can remember.
there's a really good breakdown of how marissa meyer uses asian cultures/names as props in the lunar chronicles here if you're interested!
I'm familiar with the misuse of asian cultures/names in Cinder, discussed it with other readers years after I read the book, and it's a joint horror trip as we fall into that rabbit that the novel is worse than I remember. Personally, I refuse to label this book anything related to Asia/China/etc. because of how horribly and surfaced-level the worldbuilding is written (not to mention the continent of Africa, uggghhh, that article's bringing up more locked memories). The names are plastered on like stickers with no second thought - idk what's a saying worse than spitting on someone's grave 'cause that's Cinder lmaoooo.
oh yeah definitely!! i'm very insulted by the fact that apparently singapore is mentioned in this book too yikes. so glad i've never read it
I have The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang on my kobo, do you think it's worth keeping it..... I added it when I was desperately trying to find an enjoyable vampire romantasy (a surprisingly difficult task??? they seem confined to paranormal romance & urban fantasy 😔) but I've just checked and it's YA apparently so I'm going to chuck it anyway, unless you tell me her other book had problems but was still promising....
i didn't make it to the end of to gaze upon wicked gods oops 💀 i added it primarily because from what i recall, pangu (fantasy china) is portrayed as mystical and backwards in comparison to the technologically advanced colonisers, which screams orientalist aesthetic to me. i also have major problems with how unit 731 is used in this book, particularly since the colonising party is named rome and not japan, so i've zero interest in reading anything else from molly x. chang rn. i think a lot of people enjoyed the nightblood prince though, so hopefully you do too if you decide to give it a shot!
uh oh 😭 no I need to stop trying YA I'm already not that enthusiastic about and being disappointed when it's not to my taste jfjdks also i've hit vampiric oversaturation now AND I'm firmly prioritising standalones in the hopes of making a quicker dent in my TBR so by the time i'd be willing to give it a try I'd be even older 😵💫 let's be reasonable about this
oh no 😭 that's fair!! there are only so many books we have time to read after all
Me: wait but doesn't Rui hate all of these. Ahhh, that's the point.😂
yeah pretty much HAHA i think my highest rating in here is 2 stars maybe?
lmaooo thank you for this, definitely going to bookmark this for future reference if i decide to read any of them 🤭
