Stars That Pause: 2,000 Years of Asian UFO Encounters & Lore

by Yi Izzy Yu, John Yu Branscum

Reality-warping Asian science fiction that just happens to be nonfiction.

In 11th-century China, pilgrims would journey to Pishe Lake to witness objects that flew up nightly, shot out dazzling beams of light, then vanished at impossible speeds.

In the 18th century, a high-ranking Chinese official was led by two luminous orbs away from the mountains, where female beings transported him inside one—beginning an odyssey that maps precisely onto modern alien abduction accounts.

In December 1994, twenty-five witnesses near Taiwan's Presidential Office observed five UFOs: a luminous saucer accompanied by four oval objects that looked like they were made of black iron.

These are not isolated incidents.

For 2,000 years, Asia has preserved accounts of glowing egg shapes, armored wheels, and Uzumaki-style spirals zigzagging across the sky, emerging from lakes, and hovering over cities. In the testimonies of ancient witnesses, we find the same details that Pentagon whistleblowers report today: objects emitting powerful lights, maneuvering in ways that defy physics, accounts of missing time, sudden silences, and encounters that transform or destroy those who experience them.

Drawing on declassified documents, imperial archives, classical texts, and contemporary cross-disciplinary research, award-winning writers and translators Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum expand UAP research beyond Western frameworks and open new pathways for understanding humanity's long relationship with unexplained phenomena.

STARS THAT PAUSE delivers:
• New translations of ancient Chinese encounters
• Modern cases proving the phenomenon never left Asia
• Striking connections between Eastern philosophy and current UAP conversations
• 19 provocative deep dives into related subjects, including:

*Chinese UFO theories rooted in qi and yin-yang dynamics
*A cross-cultural history of sexual encounters with non-human entities, from ancient Asian immortals to modern aliens and spirits
*The influence of Taoism on Carl Jung’s psychology and his UFO hypothesis
*The twinned histories of Asian shamanism and UAP encounters
*Profound similarities between Asian “strange lands” tales and today’s theories about portals and parallel dimensions
*Cross-cultural connections between Asian immortals, Western fairies, and modern alien and ultraterrestrial reports
*How Eastern philosophy, from Buddhism to Taoism, anticipated modern insights into consciousness, the nature of reality, and simulation theory
*Global cosmic egg mythology and its reflection in modern encounter reports *Related explorations in narrative psychology, symbolic thought, and mythological engineering

Essential reading for anyone fascinated by UAPs, Asian culture, or global mysteries. Stars That Pause is a must for fans of Cixin Liu, Ted Chiang, Passport to Magonia, American Cosmic, Hunt for the Skinwalker, and The Mothman Prophecies. A history truly stranger than fiction, it opens new avenues for understanding one of humanity’s most persistent mysteries—through the lens of one of its oldest continuous civilizations.

Genres: History

223 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2025

About the author

Yi Izzy Yu works, writes, and cavorts in the weird wilds of Pennsylvania. A former professor at both Chinese and American universities, she now works as a translator and cultural consultant. She is the co-translator of the acclaimed The Shadow Book of Ji Yun, and her fiction, nonfiction, and literary translations have appeared in magazines and anthologies ranging from New England Review and Strange Horizons-Samovar to Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror and Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora. She was named a finalist for the 2024 Ignyte Award in Nonfiction and for the 2020 Gabriel García Márquez "Gabo" Award for Literature in Translation.

Reviews

[Brian Shevory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks (谢谢) to Empress Wu Publishers and Book Sirens for lending me an advanced copy of Stars That Pause: 2,000 Years of Asian UFO Encounters and Lore by Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum. Last year, in New Jersey, there were several weeks of speculation, fear, and wonder as reports of lighted objects in the skies were published across websites, newspapers, and social media. People shared their photos of the night skies, questioning what all of these crafts were. Were they drones, government crafts, or something from another world? Even the New Jersey government requested more information from the federal government, looking for more information and a rational explanation for all of this arial traffic. The lack of explanation for this phenomenon seemed to push some to panic and anxiety. Even my kids began to worry when looking at the night skies. However, this kind of strange phenomenon, witnessed by millions of people yet lacking a clear explanation is the kind of incident that Stars That Pause interrogates across history and cultures, using interdisciplinary theories and research to make meaning of unexplained or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) that has occurred in different cultures for centuries. While I am interested in learning more about these kinds of unexplained mysteries, I thought this book would be almost like a catalogue or reference book that details unexplained events related to UAP in Asian countries throughout history. I previously read Zhiguai: Chinese True Tales of the Paranormal and Glitches in the Matrix, which was a collection of strange events and experiences of Chinese people in modern times. Although there was some brief commentary and explanation around the translated experiences, the book was a clever and fascinating collection of strange and unexplained events. I enjoyed reading the book and learning more about these experiences, seeing how some of these experiences were culturally relevant or similar to western phenomena and which were novel. However, Stars That Pause is a different type of book, one that challenged my thinking and drew from a vast array of multidisciplinary studies including history, psychology, and physics among others, to investigate and provide plausible explanations for how and why people experiences these kinds of UAP. Yu and Branscum provide useful instructions for how to read their book, which allowed me to take a different approach to investigating and thinking about the ideas they present. Their first section, “Sightings,” presents translated accounts of UAP sightings and encounters in different Asian cultures spanning nearly 2,000 years. The second section, “Discussion,” draws connections between the ancient accounts and the more modern encounters, tying the observations and encounters together. It is a useful section that provides some further context in understanding some of the cultural differences between Eastern and Western views of these phenomena. The last section, “Rabbit Holes,” which is also the longest section, provides about 20 different approaches, theories, or “rabbit holes” to delve to further explore these phenomena. I didn’t expect this book to be both scholarly and mysterious, but it balances both types of genres in a compelling and engaging way (almost like a yin yang, as the authors discussed in their exploration of Carl Jung’s own ideas about these kinds of shared phenomena and synchronicity). I really enjoyed this kind of novel application, taking unexplained events and using scholarly theories and approaches across many different disciplines to explain them. Furthermore, the authors made some really unique and interesting connections between UAP and other events, in particular in religion, spirituality, and anthropology. One of the chapters explored similarities between religious experiences like those of St. Theresa or Our Lady of Fatima’s appearance to children in Portugal. These experiences highlight not just unique encounters but also provide a religious and spiritual context for explaining sightings and unexplained occurrences. Furthermore, they highlight the nature of shared experiences and how these events might shape participants' perceptions of the events. Other chapters detail how shamans and their ability to navigate between the world of humans and spirits might also serve as an explanation for sightings and UAP. The authors note how many different accounts of shamans follow a particular script that aligns with some of the UAP they present in the first part of the book including suffering or an illness leading to an encounter or altered consciousness that provides new insights. Another chapter explores how culture and symbols also may affect our ideas about UAP and unexplained events. However, I found some of the sections on skepticism and doubt to be particularly interesting. The authors explore how doubt and skepticism is part of culture, but also acknowledge the kinds of costs associated with being more open minded to these kinds of phenomena. Nevertheless, they present several examples of well-regarded thinkers and intellectuals who pursued unexplained events, noting that this kind of open-mindedness about unexplained events is more akin to the intellectual tradition that leads to more discoveries than closing the door on unexplained events. There’s a lot to investigate and explore with this final section, and this part of the book left me with many thoughts and questions. I couldn’t stop thinking about the New Jersey lights in the sky last December, and how people were seeking multiple explanations, turning to conspiracies and willing to accept nearly any idea or explanation. Yu and Branscum’s book pulls on that thread, the human need to find definitive proof or a clear explanation for the unexplained but also offers several different ways to unravel these mysteries. I loved that they presented so many different theories and approaches, tying together different disciplines, examples, and theories to show how these strange events are experienced and perceived across different histories and cultures. This was a unique and fascinating book- one I will revisit. Highly recommended!

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary, genre-slipping, genre-defying work that’s unlike any other “UFO” book out there. It’s an excavation of history, bringing together fascinating accounts of anomalous phenomena from over a millennia of written Chinese history and comparing them to contemporary Asian and Western accounts. As the authors delve into these comparisons and pursue interesting “rabbit holes,” it also becomes a book about philosophy, science, psychology, myth, and more. It’s a meditation on the strange, the unexplainable. It’s a meditation on human perception and psychology, on skepticism and belief, on the acceptance and denial of anomalous phenomena and the explanations people have sought and constructed to explain them. Along the way, this book references Jung, Taoist philosophy, fairy tales, the K-pop band BTS, manga, and more. It’s an incredibly tantalizing, absorbing book of mysteries, and while I recommend it for those interested in UFOs and related phenomena, I also recommend it for those who scoff and think they aren’t interested in such things. This book just might change your mind. It’s for those who are interested in Asian history, culture, thought; for those interested in these subjects regardless of geographical origin; and it’s for those interested more broadly in just listening in on the extraordinarily eclectic, fascinating, and at times whimsical musings of this erudite pair of translators/researchers.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The accounts by witnesses of experiences of unidentified anomalous phenomena are fascinating.

[Melissa Betancourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was an okay read not my type of book