In 2016, my husband and I moved from California to Hong Kong to grow our family through adoption. Though I’m ethnically Chinese, this was my first time living abroad—and Hong Kong turned out to be a wonderfully welcoming place for English-speaking expats.

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After bringing home our baby boy, I was eager for him to learn Chinese—not only to connect with his heritage, but also to take advantage of the unique opportunity to learn Cantonese and Mandarin in a Chinese-speaking city.

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But I quickly realized how hard it was to find Chinese books that were both beginner-friendly and culturally relatable. As a non-native speaker, teaching Chinese has been more challenging than I expected!

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That’s why I created Lele and Monkey—a bilingual children’s book series inspired by our own language-learning journey and life in Hong Kong. It’s a way to share our story with others while capturing the everyday magic of growing up in this vibrant city.