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I felt prepared to hate the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Why? Because satire is a tricky business; not everyone gets it. And for those who don’t, what is meant to ridicule can instead promote. Case in point, the 1970′s sitcom All in the Family was intended to ridicule prejudice, but some viewers missed the point and saw Archie as a champion of American values rather than as a myopic buffoon. Having now read American Born Chinese, I better understand its success among fans and critics. Despite a fantastical and so less than satisfactory end, I found the graphic novel interesting and funny.

You need to understand that American Born Chinese interweaves three stories: an adaptation of Journey to the West, a Chinese classic featuring the legendary Monkey King; a sitcom parody that stars an extreme Asian stereotype; and a realistic story of a Chinese-American adolescent who balances his friendship with a recent Chinese immigrant with his infatuation with a Caucasian girl. Each chapter follows one of these stories, which are tied together in the conclusion.

My least favorite of these stories is the parody. Main character Chin-Knee has squinty eyes, black braids, talks weird, and knows Kung-Fu. He also knows all the answers in school, embarrasses his cousin in front of a date, and is annoying every time he steps onto the page. The author writes in his blog, “There is always the danger, of course, that by making a comic book about Cousin Chin-Kee I’m helping to perpetuate him, that readers will take his appearance … at face value. I think it’s a danger I can live with. In order for us to defeat our enemy, he must first be made visible.” I have mixed feelings. For the intended audience of older readers, Yang might have a point. Maybe the best way for society to move past prejudices and embrace diversity is to uncover and acknowledge our biases. But what if younger viewers are already moving past these prejudices? If the goal is to eliminate prejudice, why dredge up dying stereotypes?

My second favorite story is of the Monkey King. Would this be the case if I hadn’t read a modern version of Journey to the West? I don’t know. There is a risk that if one doesn’t understand the original story, the humor could fall flat. For me, I laughed a lot at this version of the stone monkey who wants to be a deity, but gets repeatedly told that he can’t. After all, um, he’s a MONKEY! The twist in the first chapter about him is priceless, when the monkey king retreats from his monkey subjects because of their monkey fur smell only to discover that he can’t escape his own smell. In subsequent chapters, the tale diverges from the version I read of Journey to the West, perhaps because Yang (as he says in his blog) “replaced the story’s Buddhist underpinnings with Christian ones, drawing from” his own faith. However, I don’t find his version particularly Christian, but rather feel it promotes a positive message about self-acceptance.

My favorite story is the most realistic of the three, even if it’s yet another repackaging of boy-meets-girl. Yang draws on personal experience, and perhaps this helps elevate the story above the well-worn cliché. Jin moves to Mayflower Elementary School and immediately faces prejudice, even from well-meaning teachers who introduce him as being from China even though he was born in America . When a fellow student shares his parents’ generalization that all Chinese people eat dogs, the teacher awkwardly comes to Jin’s defense by saying, “Jin’s family probably stopped doing that as soon as they came to the United States.” Wow! As Jin’s story unfolds, other false beliefs are uncovered. We also see Jin struggle with his racial identity as he resists the popular assumption that he should be friends with the only Asian girl, and even finds himself wanting to beat up the next Asian newcomer. Eventually, the story moves into romantic territory (when Jin falls for a white girl) while still directly dealing with prejudice. On its own, perhaps, the story would feel too “in your face.” Or maybe not. In either case, we’ll never know because Yang eventually chooses to intertwine the three stories in a fantastical twist that involves the stone monkey.

Humor works or it doesn’t. For me, it worked most of the time in American Born Chinese. Yang’s version of Monkey King was far more enjoyable for me than the action-packed one from DC Comics. While I often felt shocked at the terrible way Jin was treated, I also enjoyed reading about his more pleasant moments. Despite my not caring for the conclusion, I did appreciate the message about learning to be oneself. Over all, I’m glad that I took a chance on American Born Chinese and will be interested to see future stories from Yang.

My rating? Read it: Borrow from your library or a friend. It’s worth your time.

How would you rate this book?

Related Posts

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• Review of Monkey King by Wei Dong Chen

Jin Wang starts at a new school where he’s the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn’t want to be associated with an FOB like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he’s in love with an all-American girl.

Danny is an all-American boy: great at basketball, popular with the girls. But his obnoxious Chinese cousin Chin-Kee’s annual visit is such a disaster that it ruins Danny’s reputation at school, leaving him with no choice but to transfer somewhere he can start all over again.

The Monkey King has lived for thousands of years and mastered the arts of kung fu and the heavenly disciplines. He’s ready to join the ranks of the immortal gods in heaven. But there’s no place in heaven for a monkey.

Each of these characters cannot help himself alone, but how can they possibly help each other? They’re going to have to find a way—if they want fix the disasters their lives have become.

The above description from Amazon is about American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award.

AUTHOR

Gene Luen Yang was born August 1973 in California.  His parents,  an electrical engineer  and a programmer, taught him the importance of developing a strong work ethic and the value of education.

One of only a few Asian Americans that attended his elementary school, Yang was teased and ridiculed. Consequently, he grew up uncomfortable being Asian in the United States. Although his parents consistently sought to strengthen his cultural identity, reinforcing their Asian culture by reading Taiwanese books to him and making up fictional stories about a Taiwanese village boy, Yang still struggles with this identity.

Yang’s dream was to major in art and become a Disney animator, but his dad wanted him to “do something practical” and so he majored in computer science with a minor in creative writing. After college, he worked as an engineer for two years, and then sought spiritual direction from God for his future. Hoping that Yang would continue in the engineering field, his dad sent him newspaper clippings that contained information about salaries.  Yang ignored his dad and pursued a career in education.

In 1996, Yang created American Born Chinese.  He wanted to write about what it means to be Asian American and to explore his feelings about his cultural identity. Since this time, Yang has written and drawn a number of stories in comics. Now Yang is not only an accomplished writer, but also a teacher.

Married and with two children, Yang blends family and work time by writing for hours after the children have gone to bed.  He travels all over the world and speaks at comic book conventions and teen book clubs. For Yang, one of the perks of having a successful book is that he can “work on comics now and not feel guilty about it”.

The above information mostly came from: Beyond the Pale Books.

BOOK

Prior to American Born Chinese, Yang had created a few stories with Asian-American protagonists. However, because his ethnic heritage is such an important part of him, Yang knew that eventually he’d need to deal head-on with the Asian-American experience. Even so, according to The Millions, Yang had originally intended to write a straightforward Monkey King adaptation. “But after seeing so many brilliantly done straight adaptations in Asia I felt that I had to do something that none of those Asian artists could do. And that was [to] use the story to talk about the Asian-American experience.”

American Born Chinese interweaves three stories: an adaptation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West which featured the famous Monkey King; a sitcom parody which stars a horrendous Asian-American stereotype named Chin-Kee; and a more straightforward tale of a Chinese-American adolescent who balances a friendship with a recent Chinese immigrant and his infatuation with a white girl at his school. On his blog, Yang says that he came up with three ideas but couldn’t decide which one was the best. American Born Chinese is him doing all three at once!

Initially, Yang produced American Born Chinese as mini-comics, hand-printed comics that were photocopied and given away to friends or sold at comic book shows.  Ultimately though, he decided to publish American Born Chinese in a traditional format where, according to Beyond the Pale Books, he hopes it will serve as a “bridge” in the comic industry between comics for young adults and middle-age adults.

To read more about the origins of American Born Chinese, check out these three links:

• Origins of ABC – part 1
• Origins of ABC – part 2
• Origins of ABC – part 3

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