The British East and South East Asian diaspora has seen a welcome increase in visibility over the last few years. But as Zoe Li, founder of the online bookshop Juniper by the Sea, will tell you, the books that speak directly to the experience of being a “third culture kid” in the UK remain scarce. Her shop is not a commercial venture but a solution to a logistical problem, a dedicated space for those stories that publishers might let fade away.
Li, based in the northwest of England, had been a bookworm for as long as she could remember. She loved the library, but found a significant absence in its shelves. “I never noticed that i wasn’t even in the books i was reading,” she told us. That changed in her twenties when she found a British book featuring a British Chinese character and realised, “Whoa, this might be the first time i’m reading this.” That moment began her ten-year hunt for Asian creatives in UK culture.
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The idea for Juniper by the Sea crystallised around a single book she couldn’t buy. She had read and loved Chinese Whispers, a book focusing on the undocumented migrant community in Chinatowns and factories. She tried to gift it to friends for Christmas. “I was so frustrated that I couldn’t get a copy for friends that I decided to set up an online bookshop really just to see if I could get this one book printed, keep it alive, and keep it going,” Li explained. “Of course, I wouldn’t sell one book, so i wanted to group all the books i wanted to read myself all together.”
More Than a Name
The bookshop’s name, “Juniper by the Sea,” is intentionally whimsical, a gentle break from the weight of its mission. When starting out, Li debated choosing a name that felt more culturally symbolic. “Milk tea is a great symbol, but there wasn’t much else i felt could represent both East and Southeast Asia,” she said. She chose a name that was personal and freeing, preferring “the permission to be whimsical” over feeling obligated to define everything “through a cultural token or something symbolically Asian.”
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Li is clear that the bookshop is a “community project” and a “love letter,” not a money-making exercise. She juggles the project with full-time work, making the logistical challenge “purely showing up in the way that I want to while balancing work, life, and family commitments.”
The emotional reward, however, is clear. People seek her out at pop-ups, and the feeling is mutual. “It’s humbling to realise that you’re not alone,” she said. “I think many people didn’t realise they weren’t alone when they felt culturally or emotionally isolated due to the experiences that come with being an ethnic minority in Britain, being a child of immigrants, or an immigrant yourself.”
For Us, By Us
Li’s curation process is driven by one simple criterion: ESEA heritage background. She lets the authors identify themselves, insisting, “I don’t gatekeep people’s ethnicity.” Finding the books is not difficult, thanks to years of personal hunting and word-of-mouth in the ESEA community. The real obstacle is often the British publishing system. She cannot stock many Asian-American books because the “UK publisher doesn’t necessarily have the rights to those books, so I can’t source them in the UK.”
The final address for her “love letter” is the British ESEA diaspora. “As someone who was born and raised here, there’s an element where I had always identified as a third culture kid, halfway between worlds,” Li told us. She wants to use books to serve this community directly.
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Li is determined that the community must see itself on its own terms. She noted that books she read as a child that did feature Asian characters were “full of grief and traumatizing; they were memoirs.” This gave her a skewed view, making her think “Chinese people only wrote about sad, traumatizing things.”
“I wanted us to see ourselves from us; I don’t want it to be from another gaze,” she stated. “It’s easy, as a minority group, to see ourselves through our struggles or as victims. While those are absolutely true and valid parts of our experience, I don’t want the focus to be solely on that. I want us to see it on our own terms, the good and the bad.” For Li, the bookshop is a vital part of exploring that identity. It is, she hopes, a repository of work that will inspire the next generation to read and, eventually, to write.
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Event: Stories of Sea Crossings and Migration
On November 24th, Juniper by the Sea presents a vital discussion that moves past the polarised politics of boat crossings to focus on the human stories and their framing.
This event brings together extraordinary panellists:
• Seán Binder: A lawyer and humanitarian activist criminalised for his work with refugee rescue in Greece, who faces up to 20 years in prison at his upcoming trial.
• Chi Thai: An award-winning filmmaker and author whose work is informed by her personal experience as a Vietnamese boat refugee.
• Charly Wai Feldman: A documentary filmmaker known for covering complex current affairs, including migration and displacement.
Join us as we explore how stories about sea rescue and migration have evolved, from a historical European context to the present day, and how storytelling can reveal the human truths behind the headlines.
The event includes a panel conversation, audience Q&A, a drinks reception, and a book signing with Chi Thai. A Juniper by the Sea pop-up will also be available for recommended reads.
