Yang, Gene Luen - American Born Chinese
This is the comic that caused such a to-do when it was nominated for the National Book Award. I am not going to comment on whether or not it was in and of itself worthy of nomination, since I don't know much about the award, but in general, I am happy that it got more recognition for itself and for comics in general.
American Born Chinese tells three stories: one of the Monkey King; one of Jin Wang, a kid growing up in mostly-white suburbia; and a sitcom featuring Danny (white) and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, a cartoonish amalgram of racist stereotypes. The stories all end up intersecting in a very nifty way, but the general theme is one of "accept yourself and don't be ashamed of your culture," which isn't all that ground-breaking, particularly if one has proofread many college essays on growing up in Taiwan after years in America.
On the other hand, I very much liked how Yang adapts the story of the Monkey King and Journey to the West, though he's said that he took out Buddhist references and used Christian ones instead. Personally, I didn't realize until I read the above post, even though there's a neat panel with Monkey and his two fellow disciples bearing gifts to Mary and Joseph, which gives an entirely new meaning to "Journey to the West" and the three treasures they're supposed to bring.
I was more nidgy about the Chin-Kee storyline, given that it is a collection of incredibly racist stereotypes, but I figured that it was there for a reason, which it is. The transformation of the Chin-Kee storyline may be my favorite part of the story. Ok, not really, because Monkey King! I love Monkey! But it was cool.
I don't know if I liked the Jin storyline or not; I suspect I would have liked it more if it hadn't felt so archetypal, but I don't know how fair of a critique that is. I'm not sure if I've even read that much on growing up Chinese, so it is quite possible that it is very original. But the experience of being ashamed of being Chinese, the immediate assumption by others that you're from China, the teasing that the only Asian kids in school are going to end up getting married -- I found myself remembering my own elementary school experiences when I was reading this (I spent grades 1-3 in the US and 4-12 in Taiwan). I think it sounds archetypal because it is; I can't have been the only Asian kid to have those experiences. And that was only in three years in the US school system.
Actually, I think I may just be disconcerted because this book so accurately reflected the contents of my head with regard to Asian-ness, which isn't something that I find often. Just... the story that Jin's mother tells him in the very beginning, the Monkey mythology, Jin's experiences in school, pearl milk tea, Taiwan, fobbiness, Asian "cliques," wanting to be white, learning to not be ashamed. It is my life story, and I'm not used to seeing my life story in the books I read, particularly not the YA coming-of-age stories that I love so much.
Come to think of it, that's really sad. The books I usually read are universal in one way, but in another, they assume a certain cultural background that I don't have.
To change the subject entirely, the book just looks great. The art style is clean and fun and stylized niftily. And I happily noticed a few panels that maximized the text-picture dichotomy of comics (yay Scott McCloud for making me notice!), and I totally cracked up during the Monkey King's story. And it's printed on very nice paper stock, so I was very surprised to find that it was only $16.95. I haven't bought it yet; this is the library's copy (ha! I made my library buy it! Win!), but I think I will add it to the collection. Each storyline has separate Chinese chops -- chops of the starring characters begin each storyline, and there are individual chops for each storyline that show up on the top center of each page. I think the one for the Monkey King is just "monkey," and I looked up the one for Jin, which seems to be "jin." I can't figure out the one for Chin-Kee, though I suspect it's probably "chin."
And I was just pleased that whenever Monkey uses his assorted spells, he speaks in Chinese characters! Written correctly!
So, recommended, with the caveat that I can't tell if this iteration of the coming-of-age story is one that's overly done or not, because it is entirely too familiar to me, but may be completely foreign to other people.
Links:
- rilina's review
American Born Chinese tells three stories: one of the Monkey King; one of Jin Wang, a kid growing up in mostly-white suburbia; and a sitcom featuring Danny (white) and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, a cartoonish amalgram of racist stereotypes. The stories all end up intersecting in a very nifty way, but the general theme is one of "accept yourself and don't be ashamed of your culture," which isn't all that ground-breaking, particularly if one has proofread many college essays on growing up in Taiwan after years in America.
On the other hand, I very much liked how Yang adapts the story of the Monkey King and Journey to the West, though he's said that he took out Buddhist references and used Christian ones instead. Personally, I didn't realize until I read the above post, even though there's a neat panel with Monkey and his two fellow disciples bearing gifts to Mary and Joseph, which gives an entirely new meaning to "Journey to the West" and the three treasures they're supposed to bring.
I was more nidgy about the Chin-Kee storyline, given that it is a collection of incredibly racist stereotypes, but I figured that it was there for a reason, which it is. The transformation of the Chin-Kee storyline may be my favorite part of the story. Ok, not really, because Monkey King! I love Monkey! But it was cool.
I don't know if I liked the Jin storyline or not; I suspect I would have liked it more if it hadn't felt so archetypal, but I don't know how fair of a critique that is. I'm not sure if I've even read that much on growing up Chinese, so it is quite possible that it is very original. But the experience of being ashamed of being Chinese, the immediate assumption by others that you're from China, the teasing that the only Asian kids in school are going to end up getting married -- I found myself remembering my own elementary school experiences when I was reading this (I spent grades 1-3 in the US and 4-12 in Taiwan). I think it sounds archetypal because it is; I can't have been the only Asian kid to have those experiences. And that was only in three years in the US school system.
Actually, I think I may just be disconcerted because this book so accurately reflected the contents of my head with regard to Asian-ness, which isn't something that I find often. Just... the story that Jin's mother tells him in the very beginning, the Monkey mythology, Jin's experiences in school, pearl milk tea, Taiwan, fobbiness, Asian "cliques," wanting to be white, learning to not be ashamed. It is my life story, and I'm not used to seeing my life story in the books I read, particularly not the YA coming-of-age stories that I love so much.
Come to think of it, that's really sad. The books I usually read are universal in one way, but in another, they assume a certain cultural background that I don't have.
To change the subject entirely, the book just looks great. The art style is clean and fun and stylized niftily. And I happily noticed a few panels that maximized the text-picture dichotomy of comics (yay Scott McCloud for making me notice!), and I totally cracked up during the Monkey King's story. And it's printed on very nice paper stock, so I was very surprised to find that it was only $16.95. I haven't bought it yet; this is the library's copy (ha! I made my library buy it! Win!), but I think I will add it to the collection. Each storyline has separate Chinese chops -- chops of the starring characters begin each storyline, and there are individual chops for each storyline that show up on the top center of each page. I think the one for the Monkey King is just "monkey," and I looked up the one for Jin, which seems to be "jin." I can't figure out the one for Chin-Kee, though I suspect it's probably "chin."
And I was just pleased that whenever Monkey uses his assorted spells, he speaks in Chinese characters! Written correctly!
So, recommended, with the caveat that I can't tell if this iteration of the coming-of-age story is one that's overly done or not, because it is entirely too familiar to me, but may be completely foreign to other people.
Links:
- rilina's review