American Born Indian

Cover of American Born Chinese

By suggestion, I read a relatively new graphic novel called American Born Chinese.  The graphic novel is split into three different stories: a monkey god, a Asian American named Jin, and a Caucasian teenager named Danny.  Ultimately, the three stories intertwine and the message from the novel is very powerful. 

There may be some spoilers ahead so if you want to read the book please read it first and then come back to this.  It's a graphic novel that only takes about two hours to read.

Before reading the book, I did not know what to expect.  And even while reading the book I did not really understand what the point of the book was, until the very end.  What I did absorb while reading the book was information about Chinese culture and how that culture fits (or does not fit) into the American culture. 

Panel from American Born Chinese
with stereotyped deities

Many images in this novel are drawn to stereotype Chinese culture.  The pages that tell the story of the monkey god depict other Chinese deities and these deities are clothed in stereotypical clothing and have the stereotypical facial features.  The buildings are drawn with a very stereotypical Chinese architecture.  The artwork throughout the book is very abstracted, so it is fitting that stereotypes fill the pages.  These pictures are maybe not the best to learn from because they are very stereotypical, they still expose readers to the culture.

Sun Wukong

Another aspect of Chinese culture present in the book is the telling of the story of the Monkey King.  The story of the Monkey King is actually a real Chinese epic novel (Initially I though the author of American Born Chinese created a tale of his own).  The story of the Monkey King (formally known as Sun Wukong), is told pretty accurately we learn a lot about Chinese culture from this story.  There are Taoist and Buddhist ideals embedded in the tale.

Jin transforming into Danny

The cultural aspect of the novel that was of most interest to me was the struggle the main character, Jin, has with his identity.  Being the only Asian Americans at his school, he initially felt uncomfortable and lonely.  When another Asian American student, Wei-Chen, came to Jin's school, Jin was able to make a friend.  However, Jin continued to struggle with his cultural identity when he starts having a crush on his Caucasian classmate and his friend Wei-Chen gets a girl friend.  Jin gets a little jealous that his f.o.b (fresh of the boat) friend is able to date some female.  Jin's struggle eventually leads him to wish that he could become white, and his wish comes true.  Jin is then known as Danny.

Danny angry at Chin-Kee

However, even after the transformation his Chinese background comes to haunt Danny.  Danny's cousin, Chin-Kee, who lives in China, comes to visit Jin's family every year.  Chin-Kee is depicted as a yellow-skinned, buck-toothed, chinky-eyed, Chinese.  Chin-Kee embarrasses Danny at school, and Danny feels like it affects his social relations at his school.  Jin's anger builds up so much that he eventually fights Chin-Kee.  (Not surprisingly, Chin-Kee pulls out crazy kung-fu moves and pummels Dany). 

There is a interesting twist in that end that I will not spoil, but ultimately this story is about coming to terms with your cultural background and accepting yourself as who you are.  This is something multicultural people struggle with when growing up.  This includes first-generation Americans, American citizens whose parents were born in a foreign country.  I fit that category, so I was able to really connect with this graphic novel.

I think it is very important for Americans to be aware of this struggle that many multicultural people face.  This is especially prevalent during the younger ages when people are judgmental and are sometimes meaner.  There are always going to be cultural differences, but the more we are exposed to the differences, the more accepting our society will be as a whole. 

A website dedicated to teaching with graphic novels has an interesting review on American Born Chinese that discusses specifics on how the novel can be used in a classroom.