About Xixuan
My Background
Xixuan was born in Hechuan, Sichuan Province, China, grew up in Kangding, on the East Tibet Plateau, and now calls Chengdu, China, and Iowa, USA home. Although always wanting to be a writer, she chose a career path of science and earned a MS in cell biology and a PhD in nutrition. She recently retired as a biology professor after teaching for seventeen years. When she's not teaching or writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, dancing (ballroom and Latin), and cooking.
Photo © Giraffe Photography
My Writing
Xixuan began writing in English in the summer of 2015. The second short story she had ever written in English placed third in the 2016 Iron Pen Contest, a 24-hour writing contest organized by the Midwest Writing Center. A flash fiction piece earned the honor of “editor’s favorite” in the River City Readers Flash Fiction Contest in 2016, and another placed second in 2017. A short story has appeared in the MOON magazine and its anthology “Out of this World: The Best Short Stories from The MOON."
She's currently working on her second novel, a story about an extraordinary woman and her ghost mother.
About Flowing Water, Falling Flowers
Flowing Water, Falling Flowers is Xixuan's first novel. The idea of the story was born out of a conversation with her mom. Three Rivers, the fictional city in the novel is based on her birth place Hechuan, where her uncle, aunt and their families still reside and which she recently visited in 2018.
A cause dear to my heart
Donate to Black Hawk College "ABC All-Star" Scholarship Fund
The scholarship is for students with disabilities. ABC is our son’s initial, and it also stands for American-Born Chinese, and all students can be stars and shine. We hope to destigmatize disabilities, including the invisible kinds: autism, ADHD, anxiety, and other forms of mental illness-related disabilities .
Currently Reading
I don’t read as much as I would like, and even less keep a good record of what I read. I read new books as well as old ones. I read children’s books with my son. A few favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, Charles Yu, Lisa See, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Sue Monk Kidd, Lin Yutang, and Eileen Chang.
Books I'm reading to/with my son
The Percy Jackson Series - Rick Riordan
The Alvin Ho Series (Yes, Chinese family!) - Lenore Look and Leuyen Pham
A wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
The Year of the Dog - Grace Lin
The Year of the Rat - Grace Lin
A Night Divided - Jennifer A. Nielsen
The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate
Bud, Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis (Highly recommend Mrs. Leonardo's audio book on YouTube. The way she reads the book gives me even more joy)
The Front Desk and Three Keys - Kelly Yang
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (second time)
The Lost Ryu - Emi Watanabe Cohen
Morning Sun in Wuhan - Ying Chang Compestine
2023
Natural History - Andrea Barrett
The 12th Commandment - Daniel Torday
The Sense of Wonder - Matthew Salesses
Trust Exercise - Susan Choi
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Lori Gottlieb
And It Begins Like This - LaTanya McQueen
Between The World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Bad Feminists - Roxane Gay
Against White Feminism - Rafia Zakaria
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Feed the Lake - essay collection on craft
Normal People-Sally Rooney
Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid
The Book of Goose - Yiyun Li
The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo
Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld
The Porcelain Moon - Janie Chang
Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah
Swing Time - Zadie Smith
Cleopatra's Dagger - Carole Lawrence
Asian American Histories of The United States - Catherine Ceniza Choy
Mississippi River Museum - Keith Pilapil Lesmeister
You Have Reached Your Destination - Louise Marburg
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
长恨歌 - 王安忆
生死疲劳 - 莫言
人景与风景 - 聂华苓
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
2022
The Family Chao - Lan Samantha Chang
We Heard It When We Were Young - Chuy Renteria
Body Work - Melissa Febos
Peach Blossom Spring - Melissa Fu
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
White Ivy - Susie Yang
Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez
When the Reckoning Comes - LaTanya McQueen
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Last Rose of Shanghai - Weina Dai Randel
Mrs. Everything - Jennifer Weiner
The Committed - Veit Thanh Nguyen
Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
张爱玲：我站在原地只等你一人 - 林系言
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Great Divorce - CS Lewis
On Greif and Grieving - Kubler-Ross and Kessler
China’s Millennial Digital Generation: Conversations with Balinghou (Post-1980s) Indie Filmmakers - Karen Ma (read my review here: https://chajournal.blog/2022/10/12/chinese-filmmakers/)
Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng
北京娃娃 - 春树 (Beijing Doll - Chun Sue)
Bookends - Zibby Owens
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
乳牙 - 春树 （Milk Teeth - Chun Sue)
Hush Hush Hush - Audra Kerr Brown
The Writing Life - Annie Dillard
My Salinger Year - Joanna Rakoff
Characteristics with Chinese Characteristics - Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao (ed.) (Review coming soon)
The Best American Essays 2022 - Alexander Chee (ed.)
Tokyo Ueno Station - Miri Yu (Translated by Morgan Giles)
Real Life - Brandon Tyler
2021
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang
The Lost Jewels - Kirstin Manning
Intimations (a thin volume of my favorite essays about the pandemic)- Zadie Smith
Craft in the Real World - Matthew Salesses
The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
A little Life (Audio book) - Hanya Yanagihara
Land of Big Numbers - Te-Ping Chen
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
The Gospel of Gentility - Jane Hunter
The Conversion of Missionaries - Lian Xi
Good Chinese Wife - Susan Blumberg-Kason
My Walk with Grief - Elaine K. Olson
Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer
Minor Feelings - Cathy Park Hong
Rabbit in the Moon - Heather Diamond
And I Do Not Forgive You - Amber Sparks
Married, Living in Italy - Misty Urban
Squared Away - Alicia Dill
The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich
Let Me Tell you What I Mean - Joan Didion
Whiteout Conditions - Tariq Shah
My Day as Regan Forrester - Misty Urban
Golden Inches, the China Memoir - Grace Service
Nightbitch -Rachel Yoder
The Incendiaries - R. O. Kwon
The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tze, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Queen of The Night - Alexander Chee
Upstream Odyssey - Danial W. Crofts
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (re-read for IPR Talk of Iowa Book Club0
In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Night Rooms - Gina Nutt
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee
2020
The Book of Longings – Sue Monk Kidd
Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu
The Mountains Sing - Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
River Bend Chronicles – Ben Miller
The Mermaid Chair – Sue Monk Kidd
The Year of the Rat – Grace Lin
The Refugees – Viet Thanh Nguyen
Dear Friend, from My life, I Write to You – Yiyun Li
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - Yiyun Li
Kinder than Solitude – Yiyun Li
The Song of the Jade Lily – Kirsty Manning
The Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston
China Man – Maxine Hong Kingston
The Hundred Year Flood – Matthew Salesses
The Bride Finder – Susan Carroll
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel – Alexander Chee
Walking on Water - Madeleine L'Engle
Madame Bovary's Ovaries - David P. Barash and Nanelle R. Barash
Belabored - Lyz Lenz
Disappear, Doppelgänger Disappear - Matthew Salesses
A Candle for San Simon - Kelly Daniels
Edinburgh - Alexander Chee
Third Class Super Hero -Charles Yu
Sorry, Please, Thank You - Charles Yu
Nights When Nothing Happened -Simon Han
Gork, The Teenage Dragon - Gabe Hudson
Beloved - Toni Morrison
2019
Chinglish – Sue Pickford Cheung
The Tenth Muse - Catherine Chung
God Land – Lyz Lenz
The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan - Ben Foss
The War on Normal People – Andrew Yang
How to Change Your Mind – Michael Pollan
What We Were Promised – Lucy Tan
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
The Island of Sea Woman – Lisa See
The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman
Elegies for Uncanny Girls – Jennifer Colville
Killing Commendatore – Haruki Murakami
The Necessaries – Misty Urban
Dog Logic – Tom Strelich
Shattered Pearl – Jodie Toohey
The Old Guard – Tom McKay
Men Without Women – Haruki Murakami
Moment in Peking– Lin Yutang (I read the Chinese version earlier)