How to End a Love Story

Kuang’s choice to center How to End a Love Story around a Chinese American woman reflects increasing diversity in the romance genre. Jeannie Lin’s 2009 novel Butterfly Swords was a historical romance set in Tang Dynasty China, and it was an early marker of diversity within the genre of historical romance. For decades, these types of novels were set in either the United States or Europe.

In the 2010s and early 2020s, Asian American and Asian Canadian authors wrote several popular contemporary romances. For instance, Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient (2018) and its two sequels, The Bride Test (2019) and The Heart Principle (2021), have been especially successful. Family tensions and the challenges of navigating two cultures are key elements of Hoang’s novels. Some of her protagonists are also neurodivergent, like Stella Lane, the protagonist of The Kiss Quotient, who has autism. Hoang’s protagonists often confront difficult emotions due to feeling misunderstood throughout their lives, even within their cultural communities. Her work thus showcases that romance can include emotionally difficult topics.

Jackie Lau, who is a Chinese Canadian writer, writes romantic comedies that similarly explore themes of identity and family.