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.