Roseanne Thong was born in Southern California, but has lived in Asia for more than 15 years. In addition to being one of Hong Kong's leading resident authors of children's books, she has worked as a journalist and teacher, and currently teaches English at Hong Kong University's School of Continuing and Professional Education. She previously taught elementary, secondary and university students in California, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam.Roseanne studied Journalism, History and American Studies at California State University, Fullerton, and received her teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach. She has a Master of Arts degree in both American Studies and TESOL (Cal. State Fullerton, United States International University) and a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from Leicester University.
In addition to writing children's books, Roseanne enjoys writing adult fiction and poetry. Her works have appeared in numerous literary reviews in North America and Asia, including American Studies Journal, Asian Pacific American Journal, Dalhousie Review, Dimsum, Fiction International, New Ways, Potato Eyes, Lullwater Review, Louisville Review, Timber Creek Review and Transitions Abroad. She is currently working on a short story collection on Asian themes.
Also see Roseanne's personal website.
Roseanne Thong has published two children’s books: Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes and Red is a Dragon: A Book of Colors (summer 2001) ... [more]
- "I wrote Round is a Mooncake for my daughter, Maya, who was 2 years old at the time, because I couldn’t find any English language books in Hong Kong that taught concepts (numbers, colors, shapes) with Asian themes in mind. For example, most of the books teaching numbers did so with a Western flavor: one Halloween pumpkin sitting in a field, two snowmen on a winter day, three waiving flags in a 4th of July parade.
- "However, there was nothing about her Asian roots or immediate surroundings in HK that she could relate to. I wanted to find books that taught: one lone sanpan sitting in a bay, two stone lions guarding a temple, three pork dumplings sitting in a steamer...
- "Coming from a multi-ethnic family (my husband is a Malaysian-born Chinese), I have made finding multi-ethnic books, toys and music a personal challenge of mine. For example, during a recent trip to Korea, Japan and Taiwan, I could not find one black-haired doll in any of the stores-only blonde-haired ones. I finally located a Chinese doll online, but only after a time-consuming search. It should not be this difficult to present Asian culture to kids-especially when they live in Asia! So, I have decided to keep writing multi-ethnic books for my daughter--books geared towards different ages and interests, as she continues to grow and wonder about the world around her."
- "However, there was nothing about her Asian roots or immediate surroundings in HK that she could relate to. I wanted to find books that taught: one lone sanpan sitting in a bay, two stone lions guarding a temple, three pork dumplings sitting in a steamer...
Grace Lin -- illustrator of Roseanne Thong's first two books
E-mail Roseanne Thong