Chloe and the Kaishao Boys by Mae Coyiuto

I enjoyed this YA book about Chloe, a Filipino-Chinese girl who is turning 18, about to graduate from high school, and is getting ready to go to university after she gets into USC's animation program off the wait list. Part of turning 18 in the Philippines is having a debut (pronounced deh-BOO), which is a big celebration for a Filipino girl’s 18th birthday similar to a quinceañera. On top of all that, she’s also struggling with communication problems with her mom (who lives in America) and her dad, her burgeoning feelings for her best friend’s older brother, and a massive case of imposter syndrome regarding her skills and talent in animation. This is all layered onto Chloe's Filipino-Chinese community. Like most countries in Southeast Asia, there has always been a thriving Chinese community in the Philippines. In fact, Binondo, Chloe's neighborhood in Manila, is the oldest Chinatown in the world. And like most Chinese communities that exist in Southeast Asian countries, the blend between ethnicity and nationality can sometimes be challenging to navigate. They are Filipino, but there are also aspects to being Chinese that the community has retained. The prime example in this novel is the kaishao, a Hokkien word meaning “to introduce”. But there’s also the fact that a lot of Filipino-Chinese families also expect their children to speak Hokkien or Mandarin. There’s also what is called the “Great Wall”, a.k.a. Filipino-Chinese families who refuse to let their children date non-Chinese. All that and more is found in this fun coming of age novel.