When L. Sam Zhang moved from Shanghai to the United States, one of the first things she noticed was that Western culture seemed to be missing knowledge about the Eastern half of the world. Today, she is the executive director of the Kalamazoo Chinese Academy. She is also the author and illustrator of the picture book series, First Chinese Festivals. Her mission is to expose and educate children to the riches of the Chinese culture.
“I was born into a family that was very much into both arts and sciences,” Zhang says. “My grandmother was a famous landscape painter. Whereas my grandfather had a lot to do with city planning, and he was head of a chemical company. I grew up in a very interesting environment.”
Zhang pursued the sciences first in her education, earning her bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell and her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Michigan, but the arts called to her. That interest has blossomed as she took on the role of executive director of the Kalamazoo Chinese Academy, a school devoted to Chinese arts and culture.
“Growing up in China, we would celebrate the festivals, but what I was really interested in was the stories behind it, the mythology and the history,” Zhang says. “I really enjoyed hearing my grandparents tell me stories … of all the things that go behind the scenes.”
Zhang brought those stories to life in her picture book series about Chinese festivals. The series includes The First Lantern Festival, The First Dragon Boat Festival, and The First Moon Festival, but Zhang plans to continue the series to cover all the Chinese festivals she celebrated throughout her childhood. The stories tell the legends behind the festivals, how they were once celebrated and how they are celebrated today—along with a Chinese word guide with pinyin and English pronunciations.
Along with working on more picture books to complete the series, Zhang is also at work on a young adult novel.
“It’s all based on Chinese mythology as well,” Zhang says. “It is combined with historical fiction.”
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