Lobster Kingdom

Gouache, color pencils, and pastel

Book dummy available upon request

Lobster Kingdom is a letter to my 8-year-old self, waiting for my father to come home, and to my hard-working father, who was always there even when he was away. My father was a lobsterman and was often gone for work. As a child, I didn't understand why he always had to leave. “Why work when you could stay home and play with me” is what 8-year-old me would think. Waiting for him felt like forever, and I would often worry. Over time, I lost much of my native Chinese speech, creating another barrier between us. Though we couldn't always communicate in words, I eventually came to understand his absence in my own unspoken way. 

When I recently revisited my father’s lobster warehouse, I was stunned to see that the scary and grand kingdom I once explored as a kid, was now an ordinary warehouse. This realization is what inspired Lobster Kingdom – a story that captures the way a child imagines the everyday and perceives the feeling of missing someone they love. It follows a girl named Yu, who sets off to find her father when he’s gone longer than usual, convinced he's been taken by the Lobster King. As she journeys through the underwater kingdom filled with strange and curious sea creatures, Yu finds her own way of understanding her father’s absence.

While writing Lobster Kingdom, I allowed my story to reveal itself gradually as I better understood my relationship with my father. In this process, I let my character, Yu, come to life on her own, exploring the kingdom in a way that felt true to a child exploring a new and unfamiliar place. I hope this story can reach those who may find themselves in similar situations and to help them better understand the emotions that come with missing someone from far away.