American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

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From the moment I picked up American Born Chinese, I was excited to read it cover to cover. I had paged through the novel looking at the pictures and reading the inside flaps, but I couldn’t wait to dive into the story itself. I knew that the book was divided into three parts and going into the book, I was most excited to read about the story of Jin Wang: the partially autobiographical, realistic fiction portion of the novel. I was hesitant to read what appeared to be a folktale and a blatantly racist representation of a Chinese individual. However, I was determined to give the other two parts a fair shot and I was pleasantly surprised.

Although I taught my intersession course on comics and graphic novels, I remain to have very minimal experience with visual texts. At first, I will admit, I thought that reading graphic novels was a little like cheating. How was I supposed to “use my imagination” if the pictures were already there? Where was the challenge? However, teaching my intersession class and reading this novel really helped me to understand the unique role of the graphic novel. Yang was able to represent so much more of his message with pictures that would have been impossible or just plain confusing if written out in language. Given that the story is all about identity and the diversity of cultures, it seemed fitting that he use a medium that is universal: pictures. And the way they have been so beautifully drawn, no translation is needed whatsoever.

The story thread of the Monkey King was really interesting to me. Having no familiarity with Chinese folktales, it made me want to learn more. I felt this element of the story showed the pride Yang has in his heritage while the other two showed the difficulty he had with combining his heritage with his newfound culture; a challenge for so many adolescents (and adults) today. Now that I have read this novel and seen one version of the monkey king tale, I plan on reading more about the Chinese folktale.

At first I was completely shocked at Yang’s blunt use of racial stereotyping in the character of Chin-kee. I thought to myself, “how could someone who is promoting pride in his heritage be so blatantly racist in his portrayal of his own culture?” However, it didn’t take long to realize Yang’s purpose: blatant stereotyping would stand out and make readers think. Yang is aware that this language is used to describe and mock Chinese people on a regular basis and he wants his readers to see what this looks and feels like. It is extremely offensive and I truly believe that was Yang’s intent. It really made me think about the stereotypes I see and hear on a regular basis and what I might do to contradict those racist actions. I really appreciated his bold choice to use a stereotypical character to get his ideas across.

As far as the medium goes, I feel that a graphic novel was a great choice for this particular trio of stories. Yang was able to easily shift from story to story with a simple shift of background. His ability to use visual cues to illustrate emotion and inner thoughts really helped me to understand the characters on an entirely different level. In a way, the increase in visual cues allowed me to have a deeper comprehension of the story as well as the changes each of the characters experiences throughout the novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Yang is an incredible storyteller through images and ideas and I am grateful he was willing to put his thoughts and feelings on paper so that others might begin to understand his experience. I would highly recommend this book, particularly to someone who has little or no experience with graphic novels. Happy reading!