We were so grateful to speak with Jasmine Fang about her debut picture book, Beneath the Same Round Moon: A Mooncake Festival Story. The story, richly illustrated by Rong Pham and Vinh Nguyen, offers a fresh and topical take on a familiar tradition while thoughtfully expanding its resonance to include families who may have never celebrated or even known of the Mid-Autumn Festival. With tenderness and compassion, Jasmine enriches our understanding of what it means to draw close and forge connection even amidst change.
That we can care for each other even from far away is a timeless reminder for the holidays and every day.
Leona: I love the tenderness and musicality of how “Beneath the Same Round Moon” opens. Why was it important for you to foreground the holiday as one celebrated by all kinds of families?
Jasmine: At its core, the Mid-Autumn Festival is about loved ones gathering, though the shape of that gathering keeps changing. One year it was with my parents. Another year with relatives in Taiwan. Then with housemates in D.C. Now with my husband and children. And that’s one family, as the holiday is celebrated across the world including Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia, with related autumn moon traditions in Korea and Japan under their own names.
The second line of the book reads: “big families, small families, soon-to-be-growing families.” I wanted every child to find their own family somewhere on that page, whether that’s three generations under one roof or two people and a rice cooker.
The illustrators, Rồng and Vinh, and the art team then made the casting decisions, who these families are, the range of skin tones, and what each home looks like. Seeing their families fill in that line was one of the surprises of the process.
Leona: You pay special homage to the sensory details of the Mooncake Festival… lotus paste is “earthy,” salted duck eggs are “savory,” and tea is “fresh.” How do these descriptions help include readers who may not be familiar with these customs and dishes?
Jasmine: Even a reader who has never tasted a salted duck egg knows what savory means. Earthy, savory, fresh – those words travel across cultures, and they’re precise about the food itself rather than comparing it to something more western or familiar.
My intention was to share the essence of these flavors rather than offer a translation. For Pearl, these flavors are simply the familiar markers of her annual celebration, and I wanted the language to reflect that.
Leona: In the Author’s Note, you write about celebrating the Mooncake Festival in 2020, during the pandemic, and how you managed to keep your family members close even when they lived far away. What are your earliest memories of the Mooncake Festival? Why does this holiday have a special place in your heart?
Jasmine: Growing up, my parents would come home with a box of mooncakes, often gifted from friends, and they’d tell us the story of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess who lives on the moon with the Jade Rabbit. Then we’d all stand outside, squinting, trying to find the rabbit’s shape. Some years the moon was so bright, we were in awe. One year my sister and I stood out there in the rain, laughing. We went out anyway.
That stayed with me because my family moved fairly often. New house, new school, new everything, but the mooncakes came out every autumn, and the moon was always up there. Wherever we ended up, we felt connected beneath the same round moon.
Jasmine Fang is a Taiwanese American author whose books celebrate the beauty and messiness of everyday life. Her stories often draw from her 1.5-generation immigrant experience, her love of the outdoors and tennis, and her belief in the strength of the human spirit. Fang has worked in international affairs, higher education, and leadership development, bringing a global perspective to her storytelling. She holds a BA from UC Irvine and an MBA from Georgetown University. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and children. Her books include Beneath the Same Round Moon (Beaming Books, September 2026) and the forthcoming Our Chinatown Market (Penguin Viking, Spring 2028).
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