PHOENIXA: THE NEST, the debut novel by China-born, Chinese American author and filmmaker J.J. Cheng has been honored with the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, recognizing the book’s immersive storytelling, imaginative vision, and emotionally resonant exploration of heritage, identity, transformation -alongside its urgent call for peace: inner peace and world peace.

A stunning work in the genre-defining style now called “mystical realism,” PHOENIXA: THE NEST, follows Phoenixa, a wild-hearted, six-and-a-half-year-old Chinese girl who flies kites, rides a phoenix, and journeys into China’s tumultuous past in search of her “Renaissance Grandpa.” Guided by the ancient wisdom of the Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) and protected beneath the wings of her grandfather, Phoenixa seeks cures for human greed while navigating a world where ancestral memory and present-day danger collide-toward a portal to peace.

From the interior of a traditional Beijing Courtyard to the tiptop of a giant Wu Tong Tree, Phoenixa found her nest being moved from safety to danger. Yet, she is not alone. The incandescent Feng Huang, the Chinese Phoenix, protected and amused her as a secret guardian, even as a relentless Red force closes in, ready to strip her home bare. PHOENIXA: THE NEST, is a story of courage, hope, madness, redemption, and humanity at the brink of self-destruction.

Readers and reviewers have praised the novel for its lyrical power and emotional depth. Literary Titan calls it “ an enchanting and emotionally rich journey through memory, heritage, and identity,” noting Cheng’s ability to bridge “centuries of Chinese philosophy and Western narrative grace.” The review highlights the tender dialogue between Phoenixa and her grandfather, the hunting impact of Cultural Revolution scenes, and the book’s “lush, multilayered blend of myth, memoir, and historical reflection. It also celebrates Cheng’s illustrations as” eye-catching,” capturing generational joy alongside cultural myth.

With PHOENIXA: THE NEST receiving the Literary Titan Book Award and other worldwide industry recognition, including the UK-based Somerset Book Award semi-finalist certification and the BookLife critical review, Cheng’s debut enters the spotlight as the first installment in thePHOENIXA Saga: A Mystical Quest for Peace, fusing social realism with myth, fantasy, philosophy and spirituality to offer a luminous insider’s view on why an how the dragon roared. As a new force in East-West mythic literature and entertainment, PHOENIXA’s creative universe is poised to span literature, film, and multimedia, as well as other franchise platforms.

“In an age of escalating global conflict, understanding China has never been more urgent. By resurrecting one of the oldest Chinese myths-the peace-embodying Feng Huang-I hope to set us on a literary path toward harmony. Here, readers will discover a new tale of dragon and phoenix, with their stereotyped roles boldly reversed. In doing so, the story gestures toward a new paradigm, shifting us toward a better, calmer, and more peaceful world,” said J.J. Cheng. “Phoenixa’s journey is one of profound metamorphosis, taboo-breaking, and spiritual awakening. She emerges as a fearless female lead and peacemaker, defying the confines of a patriarchal and self-destructive world.”

PHOENIXA: THE NEST is available now. Get your copy on Amazon and Barnes & Noble today, and join Phoenixa on a mystical quest for peace through history, family legacy, and the enduring magic of remembrance.

About the Author

J.J. Cheng (aka Phoenixa Cheng)is a Chinese American author, filmmaker, and family historian, born in Beijing, China, into a renowned intellectual family on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Before coming to the United States in 1988, Cheng was a pioneering English-language journalist and broadcaster on CCTV, bringing the “China Story” to Western audiences. With firsthand witness to China’s sweeping social and cultural transformation, Cheng writes from lived experience about the costs of modernization, the loss of heritage, and the fragile inheritance of memory.

Bi-continental and bilingual, Cheng has lived and worked in both New York and Beijing and taught in the United States and China as an Associate Professor of Cinema and Television. She traces her lineage to the 11th-century neo-Confucian philosophers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, and excavates spiritual relics and cosmic wisdom buried across centuries of family history. The life story of her grandfather Cheng Zhen Jun (1888-1932), inspired PHOENIXA: THE NEST, the first of the PHOENIXA Saga. With delight and passion, Cheng also illustrated and narrated the novel, creating an immersive artistic experience for readers who cherish self-discovery and transformation.

Cheng also created a multipart documentary series CHENG LEGACY, Ancestral Quest for Modern China, an accompanying project to the PHOENIXA Saga, where the fantastical meets reality. The series follows Cheng- the sole bearer of the Cheng family legacy of her generation - as she travels across ten cities in inland China in search of the fragmented history surrounding her grandfather’s life and death, one of the pioneering early modernizers of twentieth-century China.

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