Stories

March 1, 2025

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“Over time, I realized that speaking and understanding Chinese wasn’t just a ‘useful skill’—it is my superpower and key to belonging,” says Cheryl Mainland, Founder & CEO of Dragon Academy. Her fluency in Chinese has been a source of identity and has played a key role in her journey—from understanding her cultural heritage to excelling at Harvard in East Asia Studies and negotiating successful global business deals.

Recognizing the power of language to bridge cultures and connect with 1.3 billion native Chinese speakers, Cheryl is now committed to creating an engaging and interactive multi-media platform for children and adults worldwide to learn Chinese through Dragon Academy.

At its core, Dragon Academy is an epic tale of nine multicultural teens journeying through six mystical realms brimming with ancient legends, mythical beasts, and dragons – all united in a quest to bridge worlds. This story is told across multiple media formats and channels, including a book series, social media content, an AI animation series, and other cultural initiatives. Complementing their adventure is a highly gamified app that transforms Chinese language learning into an exciting, immersive, (and even addictive) experience.

A mother of three, serial entrepreneur, lifelong adventurer, and avid surfer, Cheryl has become an inspiration to many. She has been featured in top media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Vogue, Tatler, WWD, and numerous other prestigious publications.

Cheryl Mainland, Founder & CEO, Dragon Academy (Image Source: Samanta Katz)

The Struggle of Language and Identity

Cheryl embodies the essence of a third-culture kid. Born in Taiwan, she is half-Chinese, half-American, and raised across Asia, she navigated the complexities of identity, language, and belonging from an early age.

Cheryl with her maternal and paternal grandmothers Taipei, Taiwan, 1983 (Image Source: Cheryl Mainland)

“Like many of us, I grew up straddling two worlds. The ultimate translator of languages, cultures, generations.  I carry with me the collective memory of (boring) Saturday Chinese school, the struggle of keeping up with my Chinese lessons, and the challenge of celebrating my heritage while forging my own path,” Cheryl says. “After having kids, I witnessed their similar struggles – nothing has changed.” She recognized that the traditional methods of learning Chinese – endless hours of copying hanzi characters on square grid paper (田字格) – have experienced minimal change over the centuries, relying on rote memorization rather than engagement.

Not wanting her children to face the same language learning struggles she faced (and hundreds of thousands of other Chinese learners), Cheryl is embracing this as an opportunity to spark a cultural movement that breathes new life into the Chinese language and culture. Dragon Academy’s strategy ignites a passion for learning through an epic narrative delivered via a highly gamified app, an AI mini-series, a book series, social media content, and a future film adaptation. Each of the multimedia platform components captures the story-based enthusiasm, teaching Chinese through nine proprietary building block methods that make learning Chinese fun, engaging, and truly relevant.

Dragon Academy Universe: the foundation of a highly gamified Chinese language learning app, book series, cartoons, feature films, documentaries, merchandise, and console games. (Image Source: Cheryl Mainland)

Cheryl’s Entrepreneurial Journey: Empowering the Masses

Throughout Cheryl’s entrepreneurial ventures, a constant theme has been empowering communities by identifying unmet needs and transforming the “uncool” into “cool” through innovative solutions. From dressing corporate women in clothes that boosted their self-confidence in the boardroom (The Fold London), to inspiring tweens and teens “to wear their invisible crown” on all special occasions (PromGirl.com), to reimagining sun-protective fashion—proving that staying safe in the sun doesn’t mean sacrificing style (Mott50)—her work consistently uplifts and inspires.


Most recently, to celebrate the launch of Dragon Academy Book 1 during Lunar New Year 2025, Cheryl partnered with artist Archie Geotina to honor the 46 million-strong Chinese diaspora through Pearls, an art series. Chinese Pearls features three generations of female surfers from diverse Chinese heritage – Indonesian Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, mixed-Chinese families, adoptees, and expats – riding Bali’s iconic waves in modern QiPao, empowering the community and highlighting its resilience, heritage, and unity.

A Future for the Community

“As an Asian American entrepreneur, Asian American mom, and a lifelong advocate for bridging cultures, I resonate deeply with AHN’s mission to uplift and empower the global Asian diaspora,” Cheryl affirms.  

She draws a parallel between Dragon Academy’s goal to reignite the next generation’s connection to their heritage and AHN’s commitment to rewriting narratives and celebrating Asian excellence. When asked about her future plans, Cheryl confidently states, “We are on an ambitious mission to increase the percentage of the world that speaks Chinese by 5% over the next five years.”

An estimated 5 million people started learning Japanese because of Manga, 15 million took up Korean because of K-pop, Dragon Academy is set to start a Chinese language movement. By juxtaposing storytelling and technology, Dragon Academy is approaching Chinese language learning from an “obsess, learn, master” order. 

“Imagine a world where kids want to learn Chinese because they see it as their ultimate superpower and key to belonging. That’s the future we’re building,” exclaims Cheryl.

And the journey is just beginning. Dragon Academy Book 1 launched at the beginning of this year. The highly gamified learning app, immersive AI mini-series, and a host of exciting cultural initiatives are currently in development. The first round of external investment has commenced – seeking visionary, like-minded investors to join this transformative movement.  Dragon Academy is poised to redefine the landscape of Chinese language learning and cultural exploration.

DRAGON ACADEMY “Traditional Scene.” The OG Dragon Keepers, ancestors of the 9 multicultural teenage protagonists of the Dragon Academy Universe. (Artist: Andrew Archer)

Learn More about Dragon Academy

Website: https://dragonacademy.com/

Instagram: @dragonacademy_official

Book 1: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM4YDLL3

Connect With Cheryl Mainland

Instagram: @cherylmainland

LinkedIn: Cheryl Mainland

Email: Cheryl@dragonacademy.com

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Nanxi and Tina

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Blaze.tech Launches and Raises $3.5 Million Pre-Seed Round for AI-Powered No-Code Software Development

LOS ANGELES, January 11, 2023 — Blaze.tech, the smarter no-code platform that’s revolutionizing the way teams build web apps and tools, announced its official launch and has raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Flybridge Capital and MaC Venture Capital. The round also included participation from investors and unicorn founders in enterprise SaaS including Vlad Magdalin (CEO, Webflow), Mada Seghete (Co-founder, Branch), Mark Schopmeyer (Co-CEO, CaptivateIQ), ACTAI Ventures, Sangha Capital, and Bill Tai. This funding round will accelerate Blaze’s growing customer base, increase the platforms’ integrations, and expand its AI capabilities. 

Today’s public launch follows a successful beta phase in which Fortune 500 companies and startups used Blaze to build dashboards, HIPAA compliant apps, complex workflows, automated invoice generators, and inventory management systems all without writing any code. Because of Blaze’s emphasis on security and its robust suite of enterprise security features, the company has found popularity with organizations in highly regulated industries like healthcare, legal, construction, transportation and logistics, and finance.

With Blaze’s AI-powered no-code platform, teams are able to create and launch highly custom and secure applications and internal tools in minutes. Blaze gives non-technical people the superpower to be entrepreneurial product builders with an intuitive all-in-one drag-and-drop interface and AI system. Blaze AI is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3 model, the same one used by ChatGPT. App creators can tell Blaze AI to create complex workflows, automatic triggers, custom filters, advanced calculations, and more.

Blaze improves operations and productivity, and with pre-built integrations into Airtable, DocuSign, Freshdesk, Google Sheets, Salesforce, Stripe, Shopify, and many more tools, users can build multiple apps on top of their existing tech stack.

The no-code/low-code market is one of the fastest growing markets (from $25 Billion to $187 Billion in 2030), and Blaze’s unique positioning is enabling teams to build software with complexity, customizability, and security that otherwise would require writing code.

“We’re so excited to maximize the talents of people inside organizations by giving them the ability to solve business problems with software,” said Nanxi Liu, Co-CEO of Blaze. “We’re seeing individuals supercharge and significantly increase the efficiency of their team’s operations with Blaze.”

“Our users can implement their app’s business logic in just a few clicks because Blaze has done all the difficult work on the technical side to provide a platform that generates intuitive front-ends and secure, scalable back-ends,” said Tina Denuit-Wojcik, Co-CEO of Blaze.

“We are thrilled to support the Blaze team in their mission to create powerful tools and dashboards without the need for expensive engineering resources,” said Adrian Fenty, General Partner and Co-Founder of MaC Venture Capital. “Nanxi and Tina have the business acumen to be huge disruptors in the industry, and because they’ve experienced these challenges first-hand, we know Blaze is building a top-tier product.”

“Nanxi and Tina are exceptionally talented founders with deep insights into the needs of Blaze’s customer base. Having watched how well they led and capital efficiently managed their prior company to significant success, we were delighted to invest in this dynamic duo,” said Chip Hazard, General Partner and Co-Founder of Flybridge Capital.

Additional investors in the round include Dean Schnider (Partner, Najafi Companies), Felicia Curcuru (CEO of Binti), Holly Liu (Co-Founder, Kabam), Lin Capital, Michael Einziger (co-founder of the band Incubus), Mike Lu (co-founder of Triller), Root and Shoot Ventures, Socially Financed, and The K Fund.

About Blaze.tech

Blaze.tech is the smarter no-code platform that’s revolutionizing the way teams build web apps and tools. Blaze’s AI-powered platform improves operations and productivity by enabling non-technical people to build and launch custom software in minutes, without writing any code! From dashboards and workflows to portals and more, Blaze’s all-in-one-builder has pre-built integrations, security and reliability. 

Blaze is headquartered in Los Angeles and was founded in 2022. The founders, Nanxi Liu and Tina Denuit-Wojcik, previously founded Enplug, a leading digital signage software, which was acquired in 2021.

For more information, visit Blaze.tech.

Press Contact:

press@blaze.tech 

Press release documents here.

Image Source: Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko / Shutterstock

News

Indian-American’s Thriving Community Create A Positive Impact In North Texas

The rising population of Indian-Americans in North Texas is proving to be a strong force. Indian-Americans like Singh have permanently shaped North Texas’ cultural landscape in a variety of fields, including technology, education, and politics.

Tony Singh grew up with a father in the Indian Navy and moved every couple of years. Today, he’s settled in Little Elm, and even elected as councilman to serve his new neighborhood. Singh established initiatives to benefit Little Elm residents, while actively and regularly volunteering himself.

Most Indian-American employees work in only three industries: computer science and mathematics, management, and health care. Among all immigrants, Indian-Americans are the highest earners in the state. For this reason, Dinesh Hooda came to Texas in 2011 in search of employment.

Dinesh Hooda’s family had trouble adjusting until he attended India Association of North Texas’ Indian Independence Day. Through this, they established friends with Indian-Americans in North Texas who share similar experiences and struggles. Hooda is currently Uber’s senior technical program manager.

The fastest-growing ethnic group in the state is Asian, with Indian-Americans making up the majority of the group. Texas has the second-largest population of Indian Americans in the nation overall. This group will expand even more in the upcoming years, which could have a significant impact in the area. 

And while there are many struggles and difficulties to face as immigrants in the state, there are also lots of groups and communities willing to reach out to help one another and make each other feel welcome and at home.

Image Souce: olliecantos.com

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Blind Filipino-American Civil Rights Attorney Gets Elected As West Covina City Council Member

Filipino-American Ollie Cantos, who was born with a visual impairment, is now taking his experience and knowledge to West Covina City Hall.

In 1997, he graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles with a law degree. He served as a staff attorney at the Disability Rights Legal Center after graduating. He also held various roles as a civil rights attorney in the Washington, D.C. government before the coronavirus emerged.

Now, he is a sworn-in member of the West Covina city council and is looking forward to contributing back to his community, where he was raised by his Filipino immigrant parents.

“My excitement level is off the charts because this represents the culmination of a lot of hard work of countless people that got us here and when we look at the opportunities that are ahead of us to unite, and to be supportive of making the city better, this day is also historic,” Cantos said in an interview.

Cantos will collaborate with a fellow Filipino on the current city council, as Letty Lopez-Viado, the first Filipino-Mexican mayor of the city, was also elected unopposed in November. She was first elected to the city council in 2018 and served as mayor of the city from 2020 to 2021.

“Though he can’t see with his eyes, he sees with his heart,” Lopez-Viado said of Cantos as she got sworn in. “He’s a very intelligent, well-spoken gentleman, and I’m very excited to work with him.”

Image Source: Considered Objects

Stories

Japanese-American Designer Sara Sakanaka Revamps Vintage Kimonos Into Modern Clothing

Each of us has a unique way of imparting the memories, stories, and mementos we want to pass on to our future generations. As for 39-year-old Japanese-American designer Sara Sakanaka, the way is by incorporating ancient tales into modern clothing.

In her studio in Brooklyn, Sara preserves a little drawstring bag that her grandmother sewed for her decades ago. One of Sakanaka’s oldest mementos, this heirloom represents a long-standing ideology and was made from leftover fabric.

You will also find in her studio, folded stacks of rescued textiles waiting for her to stitch them into something new, exactly like her grandmother used to do as a hobby.

After her grandmother passed away, Sara began studying the kimonos she had inherited from her. She realized that giving these garments a second chance through reconstruction was a means of healing and re-establishing her identity and cultural roots.

Her initial creation was a classic, collared, button-down shirt. She embroidered a tiered patchwork flower fashioned from leftover silk scraps inside each garment she produced.

“There’s this whole idea that objects have lives,” she says in a Vogue interview. “I like to see every piece as a truly considered object in that way,” thus, naming her label as Considered Objects.

Considered Objects offers tapered silk slacks, oversized coats, two-toned vests, draped dresses, and hand-sewn accessories. Each item is made of recyclable materials, and within each garment is a silk scrap flower and a tag. Each shirt comes with a drawstring bag, a keepsake designed to be handed on like the one she inherited from her grandma.