Fashion influencer and author Eva Chen stopped by the Today show to discuss her latest children’s book, We Are Golden: 27 Groundbreakers Who Changed the World.
Chen’s book, illustrated by Sophie Diao and published Tuesday by Feiwel & Friends, collects the stories of influential people of Asian descent, including Bruce Lee, Patsy Mink, and Sandra Oh. Chen and Diao collaborated on a previous book, I Am Golden, which a critic for Kirkus called “a shining affirmation of Chinese American identity.”
Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager noted that Chen’s children’s books “feel personal in some ways.”
“I grew up reading children’s books,” Chen said. “It was what I always wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to write books that really represented things that I didn’t have growing up. So when I wrote I Am Golden, which came out two years ago, it was really about Asian American joy. I never saw books with covers that looked like me. And this new book is about Asian history that really isn’t taught in schools.”
Hager asked Chen to talk about some of the people she highlights in We Are Golden.
“Right on the cover you see Chloe Kim, who’s an amazing Korean American snowboarder,” she said. “We have Tetsuya Fujita, who is a scientist who invented the scale for tornadoes.…You see Naomi Osaka, Michelle Kwan, who I’m obsessed with .…The author Amy Tan, who really was like a roadmap for me in many ways. The Joy Luck Club was a book that I read growing up.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
