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Kavita Daswani

The Vale, Abigail Hing Wen’s latest young adult fantasy book, was written more than a decade ago by The New York Times bestselling author for her creative thesis at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
At the time, she felt that she was watching AI “being incubated and seeping into all our lives”, something that sparked a story about a 13-year-old boy who builds an AI-generated VR fantasy world to retreat to from reality.
The idea was too far ahead of its time.
“Nobody knew what AI generation was, so my agent at the time shelved it,” Wen says. “She said, ‘I can’t get behind this. I don’t know what it is.’ So I put it away for 10 years.”

Wen turned her attention to an entirely different genre and, in 2020, she wrote young adult fiction Loveboat, Taipei. The story was about an Asian-American teen who attends an educational programme in Taiwan that is nothing like she expected.
The success of that book, which led to the 2023 film Love in Taipei, yielded two follow-ups: Loveboat Reunion and Loveboat Forever. A stand-alone romance novel, Kisses, Codes and Conspiracies, was released last year.
When she was invited to write and direct a short film, she remembered The Vale and thought of a prequel. The project quickly snowballed: Broadway legend Lea Salonga came on board, and Emmy-nominated John Aoshima (of Ultraman Rising) signed on to handle animation. The book will finally be published in September.
Wen’s background, raised in a multicultural Asian family in the US, makes her uniquely equipped to straddle the worlds of tech and art.
“My mom is from the Philippines and my dad was born in Jakarta [in Indonesia]. My grandparents are from mainland China. So they left years and years ago … we’ve been a family of immigrants for years.”












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Abigail Hing Wen (@abigailhingwen)



Visits to the Philippines were a regular part of her childhood, and a trip to Indonesia at age 12 helped her connect with her paternal roots. Yet, like many in her community, she wrestled with identity.
“I think as a kid, I was running away from my heritage. And that’s like part of the story that’s captured in the Loveboat, Taipei series: a girl who comes back to her heritage and recognises it as a superpower.
“I did Chinese school growing up, but I dropped out in second grade … My mom mostly spoke her own dialect, but she also spoke Tagalog, English, Spanish, a bunch of other languages. And my dad came to America when he was 13, so he spoke Mandarin, English and an Indonesian dialect.”
That cultural fluidity, combined with a tech-savvy household in the heart of Silicon Valley – her husband works in tech, and they are based in the San Francisco Bay Area – has shaped how Wen sees the world and how she writes.
But she draws a line: “I don’t use AI to write books. I don’t use AI to make movies. But I use AI to share ideas internally with my team.”
It is no coincidence that The Vale, a story powered by a boy’s grief and imagination, is itself based on a blend of mythologies.
“The Vale itself is trained on folklore and fairy tales … the whole concept actually is very much The Magic Paintbrush, which is an ancient Chinese story that I loved as a kid.”

Wen’s body of work is increasingly rich with stories informed by her heritage.
“I think I became more courageous as I wrote,” she says. “I do want to tell the stories that haven’t been told from our community.”
Still, her path to becoming a full-time author was anything but easy. She worked as a lawyer, but always looked for opportunities to write.
“I didn’t have the courage to call myself an author, even though I have always told stories, almost in the way of oral tradition. When my siblings and I were little, I would tell them stories and make up worlds where we were without adults and on adventures. And in school, college and even law school, every opportunity I had with an open-ended assignment, I wrote a short story.
“People said I was gifted, and I was like, ‘No, no, they’re just being kind.’ It was finally my husband who encouraged me to go back to that fantasy novel. And it came pouring out of me.”
Wen is currently deep into her sixth book, The Fidget Booth, a graphic novel about an intergenerational ADHD family. She is also writing the screenplay for The Vale.

Despite all this, her mornings remain sacred. “I try to protect my mornings to write. I tap out at three hours, which most writers do.”
To young writers, she offers simple advice: “Write what you know. But also read widely in the genre that you want to write in.”
Most importantly, she says, find the emotional core of your protagonist, because that is what readers will connect with.
“It’s the most important thing. The book could maybe not even make sense. It might not be consistent. It might be convoluted. But if the emotional core is something [readers] can follow, that’s the most important thing. If not, they will just give up and go get a peanut butter sandwich.”
She follows her own advice and believes she has infinite stories left to tell.
“I have two magnum opus novels,” she says, smiling. “And I’m sure more will show up.”


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Books and literature

Author of YA novel Loveboat, Taipei on new book The Vale, a story ahead of its time

Abigail Hing Wen’s decade-old AI-themed YA fantasy novel, The Vale, is finally set for release this September. Photo: Third State Books

The cover of The Vale.

The cover of Loveboat, Taipei.

A scene from Love in Taipei (2023), a screen adaptation of Loveboat, Taipei. Photo: Paramount+

Actor Daniel Dae Kim on new Amazon Prime show Butterfly and his Asian-American identity

Daniel Dae Kim at the world premiere of Butterfly in New York on August 5, 2025. Kim discusses his new spy thriller and how he explores his Korean-American identity. Photo: AP

Daniel Dae Kim in a still from Butterfly.

Reina Hardesty (left) and Kim in a still from Butterfly. Photo: Juhan Noh/Prime Video

Butterfly actors (from left) Piper Perabo, Kim and Hardesty at San Diego Comic-Con in 2025. Photo: AP

Kim and Hardesty in a still from Butterfly.

Marvel’s first-ever female Iron Fist, Jona Xiao, on why she’s now ‘so proud to be Asian’

Jona Xiao reveals why she used to “not recognise the Asian face staring back at me”, and why that has changed. Photo: Brett Erickson

Growing up as one of only a handful of Asian kids in her community, Jona Xiao often felt like an outsider. Photo: Brett Erickson

In 2013, Xiao launched Career Activate, a platform that helps actors navigate the business of acting. Photo: Brett Erickson

In Blob: A Love Story, an Asian-American woman literally moulds her perfect man

Author Maggie Su holds copies of her debut novel Blob: A Love Story. Photo: Instagram/litmagreject

The cover of Blob: A Love Story. Photo: AP

Blob is Su’s first novel. Photo: Instagram/litmagreject

Takeshi Kaneshiro, one of the ‘most good-looking’ actors in Hong Kong cinema and star of some of Wong Kar-wai and Peter Chan’s best movies, is a man of mystery

Takeshi Kaneshiro at an interview with the Post in July 2004. Kaneshiro, who debuted as a singer in Taiwan in 1992, has not been seen on the big screen since 2017 – but remains as popular as ever. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu in a still from “This Is Not What I Expected” (2017).

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Brigitte Lin in a still from “Chungking Express” (1994). 

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada in a still from the drama series “God, Please Give Me More Time” (1998).

(From left) Xu Jinglei, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Jet Li, Jacky Heung and director Peter Chan promote “The Warlords” at an event in December 2007. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from “Perhaps Love” (2005).

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Michele Reis in “Fallen Angels” (1995). Photo: Block 2 Pictures and Jet Tone Contents

Takeshi Kaneshiro in an interview with the Post in December 2006. Photo: SCMP

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Books

Her agent didn’t understand, so it was shelved. Now, Abigail Hing Wen is releasing The Vale, a decade-old story about a child in an AI world


Her agent didn’t understand, so it was shelved. Now, Abigail Hing Wen is releasing The Vale, a decade-old story about a child in an AI world.


Asian diaspora

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