I got to see Gene Luen Yang give a talk during a teacher’s conference probably a decade ago. He spoke quite a bit about American Born Chinese and the experience of making original graphic novels, so why didn’t I read his book sooner? I actually wanted to, but somehow never got around to it before now.
Well, I have now corrected that oversight.
American Born Chinese, winner of multiple literary awards, is a bit of an unexpected surprise in that, at first blush, it looks like Yang is telling three completely unrelated stories. His three protagonists are Jin Wang, a Chinese American middle school student; Danny, a white American high school student; and the Monkey King, a prominent figure from Chinese legend.
All of these characters do possess one thematic commonality: all three want to fit into a group they were not necessarily born into by trying to change what they are. The Monkey King, whose story opens the book, wants to fit in with various Chinese gods and demons, but he’s derided as just a monkey. It doesn’t matter how much martial arts or magic the Monkey King knows. He’s just a monkey.
Jin, on the other hand, has a thing for a white classmate, but she may have eyes on someone else, causing Jin to consider steps such as changing his hairstyle to look more like a white classmate.
As for Danny, he gets an annual, highly embarrassing visit from his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, a character Yang writes and draws to look like the ugliest possible Chinese stereotype.
All three of these characters want to fit in, but the general idea may be that they should be happy with who and what they are and not want to be something else. That’s a particularly good lesson for anybody, but Yang does a bit more with that concept. It’s one thing to be yourself, but it may be something else if you are the child of an immigrant whose very appearance sets yourself apart from many of the people around you. We see Jin Wang make his only real friend as a kid with the only other Asian boy in his class. What happens when he wants friends outside of that?
I liked this book. Yang has a good sense of pacing, and his moral may be familiar, but it’s one we all need to hear as we grow up regardless. Yang also points out the racist attitudes of others against his various protagonists. Jin is asked at one point by a white classmate not to ask out the girl he likes for a second date because, he is told, she needs to be careful what social group she’s seen in. While the character doesn’t elaborate much on what that means, it doesn’t take much effort to see what Jin thinks it could mean given the way the rest of the book goes.
Aimed at younger readers, American Born Chinese is a fine graphic novel for any person of any age group, and a sign of real talent from Yang.
Grade: A
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