Exclusive Interview: Justinian Huang Talks ‘The Emperor and the Endless Palace,’ Honoring Queerness in His Heritage, and More

Debut author Justinian Huang is heating up the literary world with his romantic fantasy novel, The Emperor and the Endless Palace.

In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor–but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex ,and intrigue. In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead. And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before.

Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them. As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.

Pop Culturalist had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Justinian about The Emperor and the Endless Palace, how the story honors queerness and his heritage, holding space for his community, and more.

PC: Your debut novel was inspired by a real-life emperor and his lover. You first heard of them years ago. What ultimately led you to put pen to paper and tell the greatest love story never told? At what point in the process did you realize you wanted to have these three different timelines and the idea of reincarnation?
Justinian: I love that question. When I found out about this emperor and his lover, I really wanted to write about them. But the reason that I wanted to write this book in the first place was because when I first came out to my family, they were like, “There’s no such thing as queer Asian people. That’s a Western thing. That’s a modern thing. That’s not part of our heritage.” So hearing about this emperor all the way back to 4 BCE who was worshipped as a living God and finding out that not only are queer folks part of my heritage, but we used to literally be emperors of China. That was really fascinating to me and healing in a way because it showed that I’m not an aberration. I’m actually part of this very sacred legacy.

Because of that, I wanted to show that queerness reverberates throughout our culture, throughout the years. I wanted to write about queerness at different points in my heritage. So that’s why you have the first timeline that takes place in the Endless Palace in 4 BCE with the true story of this emperor and his male lover, Dong Xian. Then you have this fairy tale that’s set in the 1700s, which is also based on a queer Chinese folktale. Then you have modern day, present day, with two boys crashing into each other on the dance floor at a circuit party. It goes to show that, once again, I wanted to draw a line of this lineage of queerness throughout my heritage.

It being about reincarnation came from a more personal place for me as well. I lived in China from 2015 to 2020. During that time, there was a lot of turmoil living so far away from home. I had just turned 30 there. I went through some tough periods with my own mental health journey. I felt a lot of solace because of my godmother in Taipei. She’s a very respected lawyer, but she’s also a Buddhist nun. When I would talk to her, she would tell me about reincarnation. She would tell me these Buddhist teachings. I found that also very healing, so I decided to weave that into the book, that you have these two soulmates who were destined to reincarnate over and over again until they get their love story right.

PC: What a beautiful way to honor your heritage and shout out to Taiwan! We’ve rarely seen Asian characters depicted in this way, which is so refreshing and needed. Was that something that you were mindful of during the writing process? Why was that so important to you from a creative standpoint?
Justinian: It’s really hard to be both the subject and the teacher. At the end of the day, I wanted to write about my experiences, my own authentic lived-in experiences. The fact that there are barely any queer Asian leads in the romance genre in America, I’m really proud that my book is one of the firsts.

But when I was writing the book, I wasn’t thinking about how this was going to stack up. I just wanted to write from a place of truth. It would have been too overwhelming to think this book might be one of the firsts. That’s too much.

I’m very privileged that I was given the tools at a young age because of my education and support system to have a lot of confidence in myself as a queer person of color. It’s very important for us to have a lot of confidence in ourselves because often we have to be our own cheerleaders.

There’s a character in my book that has emerged as a reader favorite. I get messages almost every day on Instagram about Calvin, who is a secondary character. But what’s interesting about Calvin is that he’s such a cheerleader to the main character, River.

At one point, River is down about himself. Calvin says to him, “You need to be proud of being a queer Asian person because there are hundreds of millions of us in the world. We probably outnumber Western Europeans in the world, so we’re actually part of a magnificent, global community.”

This is all stuff that I had already known because of my years of living in Asia. To write it into the book, I hope that other folks who feel similarly marginalized realize that they’re part of something great and magical.

PC: Beautifully said. Perfect segue to this next question. When you initially told your parents that you wanted to work in this industry, they were horrified, which is a story that’s so familiar for so many creatives. During your work in the film industry, you were able to open a lot of doors for marginalized voices. Why has it been so important to you to pay it forward? What advice would you give young creatives who want to follow in a similar path as you?
Justinian: Thank you for knowing all that. That’s really cool. Yeah, when I wanted to work in Hollywood, my parents told me that I needed to have guānxì, which is a Mandarin word that means special relationship. You don’t take huge risks unless you have a special relationship with it. My family was like, “Why wouldn’t you work in our field? Why wouldn’t you work in a field that we know?” There were some notable Asian folks in Hollywood at the time, but there wasn’t the community that we have now. So it’s important for Asian folks specifically to support each other because we’ve often been raised to be competitive with one another. I was definitely compared to my cousins and sister. Ultimately, we need to hold space for each other. I love being around other folks of color who approach a situation similarly to me.

When I was working as a film executive, I was often the only queer person in the room. I was often the only person of color in the room. Maybe it was out of sheer loneliness. [laughs] Maybe that’s why I wanted to pay it forward. [laughs] But when I joined Sony, I told my amazing boss, Kristine Belson, one of the greatest people working in Hollywood and such an ally in so many ways, “I will only join if someone on every project in key leadership, either a director or writer, is either a woman, queer, a person of color, or all of the above.” She agreed to that. Those were all of my projects while I was working at Sony. It wasn’t a long run; it was three years. Right now, I’m writing full-time, but I’m really proud of what I accomplished at Sony. I’m still consulting for them, so I still have that foot in the door.

PC: You’re a trailblazer for our community. It starts from the top down. You touched upon this already, but you said that you hope that when readers pick up this book, they feel something authentic and true, and reshape the ways they view love. What has been that piece of media that’s done that for you?
Justinian: Oh, wow. One of the biggest influences for this book was The Handmaiden by Park Chan-Wook. First of all, I just loved the visual storytelling and how moody, beautiful, and gothic it was. I thought as a queer love story, it leaned into this idea that queer romance is different than straight romance because the stakes are so much higher. The love between the two main characters was so heightened, over-the-top, and dramatic. I really borrowed a lot from that for this book. I’ve been told at this point that there are some jaw-dropping moments in this book. I want that to be seen as a metaphor that the stakes are higher when you’re a queer person of color falling for another person of color. That definitely shaped me.

PC: With this being your debut novel, what was the most surprising part about the experience of putting it together? What’s the biggest takeaway that you’ll bring to your next book?
Justinian: The biggest thing was I didn’t realize how much hustle you have to have as a debut author. I love my publisher and imprint. My book is printed by Mira Books, which is part of HarperCollins. They supported me so much. But at the end of the day, you need to do a lot of your own hustle. You need to be networking. You need to be begging more established authors to write blurbs for your book. I didn’t realize it was going to be that much hustle. I’m actually a bit of an introverted homebody. That was very new to me, having to go out there. Also, establishing more of a presence on social media was key too. I had a private profile when we first started publicizing the book. I had to sort of create this persona online.

There’s a video that I did that got the most hits of me responding to people who were surprised by how there was so much sex in my book by spanking myself with one of my hardcovers. That’s really funny because it’s not my personality.

My housemates are stand-up comics, and they brainstormed that for me. Apparently, we sold a lot of books because of that video, so it’s been interesting. But yes, there’s a lot of that. If anyone wants to get into this business, be prepared. You have to hustle. You have to be your biggest cheerleader. It’s a lot of work.

For my second book, I’m glad that my first book is out there, and people got a sense of what I write. If you’re not into how spicy my books are, they will remain spicy, so it’s fine. I’m finding my audience right now with the first book out. Hopefully, they stay with me for more books to come.

PC: You write in such a cinematic way. We’re living in an age where there are so many books being made into films. If this story was adapted for the screen, who would you want to play your leads?
Justinian: That’s a really hard question. Compared to a few years ago, there are so many up-and-coming Asian, Asian-American, AAPI, and API actors, so it’s hard for me to say. For River, there’s Justin Min. There’s Nymphia Wind, who just won RuPaul’s Drag Race and has a soulfulness, especially when she’s out of drag, that captures the essence of one of my characters. There’s another actor, Justin Chien, who just had a great run on Brothers Son, whom I think is very interesting. But casting it, discovery is fine as well. Every day when I’m out and about, I hear about this up-and-coming actor. It would be fun for this theoretical show.

To keep up with Justinian, follow him on Instagram. Pick up The Emperor and the Endless Palace today.