Navigating the Chinese Hui Diaspora in Middle-Grade Fantasy: Intersecting Marginalizations in Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

Abstract This essay examines Xiran Jay Zhao’s middle-grade fantasy Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor (2022), which innovatively maps the complexities of Hui Chinese diasporic identity at the intersection of ethnic, religious, and national affiliations. Centering a second-generation Chinese American protagonist of Hui descent, the novel critically challenges dominant Han-centric and Islamophobic frameworks that marginalize Hui identity both within China and across the broader diaspora. By weaving Chinese imperial history, mythology, and the fictional augmented reality game Mythrealm into its narrative, Zhao constructs a dynamic “third space” (Bhabha, 1994) in which cultural memory and identity are continuously negotiated, contested, and reimagined amid uneven power relations. Drawing on intersectional and cultural hybridity frameworks, including Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the third space and Ien Ang’s account of hybridity’s ambivalence, the essay argues that the novel portrays cross-cultural marginalizations and explores identity as fluid, ambivalent, and dialogic rather than fixed or essentialist. Through Zachary’s embodied interactions with Chinese imperial figures and his digital gaming environment, the narrative foregrounds the persistent tensions in diasporic belonging shaped by histories of exclusion and contested cultural legacies. Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor expands the representational and thematic possibilities of middle-grade fantasy, offering a compelling site for engaging with intersectional diaspora experiences, cultural memory, and hybrid identity formation in an increasingly interconnected and digitally mediated world.