Cynthia Zhang should be writing!

@czwrites.bsky.social

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PhD student, writes + studies spec fic // she/they https://cynthiaqzhang.wordpress.com/ https://linktr.ee/czhang

The yearning for the past often lands us on the somewhat hollow nostalgia of ephemera: if we can’t have the nineties back, we can build a life of things that might feel transportative. I have no right to judge, really. I push physical media on anyone who will listen, ranting about the need for hard drives and for ways to store the things you love because, one day, they may not be accessible on streaming anymore. I have a CD player in my home, a VCR in a closet. But I’m also inclined to think about the work that older devices demand of a person compared with the frictionless present day, when we are told that any and all content is at our fingertips (a myth, but a myth that sells.) And I can’t help but think of the reality that there are many significantly larger and more consequential inconveniences that Americans, plainly, do not have the heart or stomach for. One example might be the inconvenience caused by a mass political uprising, one that risks the security, safety, and comfort of its participants. I have seen glimpses of people’s threshold for that level of friction. I think, for instance, of the summer of 2020, when a protest movement collided with the first COVID summer and people’s material needs—at least in my community— weren’t being met. And so, for almost a month, after being on the streets all day, protesters would go and sew masks at night, or make care packages for elders, or do grocery runs to fill pantries, and many of us did that at the cost of our own sleep, or our own time with loved ones at home, or we did it in betrayal of our desire for convenience, ignoring the temptations of the couch and the latest streamable binge
Dash, a small white dog in green boos and a red sweater. He was a very good boy
Title page of a PhD dissertation entitled '"To See with Eyes Unclouded': The Alternative Epistemologies of Fantasy Fiction"
Things I Wrote: 2025 "Jane Doe" Fraidy Cat Quarterly, Vol. 5 "Houyi the Archer Fights the Sun" PodCastle, Episode 886 "Corpse Paint, Grave Dirt" If There's Anyone Left, Vol. 5 "Shells" Fusion Fragment, Issue 25
Cover of Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble
Weather forecast for LA, predicting highs of 90 for today and 95/94 for the next four days
Hand pointing a gun at the sun with the words “I’ve had enough”
Brown mackerel tabby next to a tin of uneaten cat food
Person in a pink labubu outfit with a sign saying ice out of LA
sign that says fuck ice (so true bestie)
A plush toy of Mothman next to a copy of Fusion Fragment #17
Zine of resources for our current political hellscape, divided into "take care of yourself," "take care of others," and "educate and organize." Some resources are LA specific
text from the novella After the Dragons about the protagonist dealing with air quality reports
Things I Wrote This Year: The Care and Training of Hellhounds (3471 words) in Translunar Travelers' Lounge A Cure for Heartache (5800 words) in The Crawling Moon Growing Things (760 words) in Bitter Become the Fields The Princess and the Witch (4572 words) in Fall into Fantasy
Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki summary detailing how an anime twelve-year-old retooled his dad’s weapons company for a magical card game