American Born Chinese

by Gene Luen Yang

[nannah]

This is a perfect example of how graphic novels are, in fact, real fiction. …I’m actually not sure anyone says that anymore, but if they did, this could be your counterargument!

Content warnings:
- racism, racist caricatures & racist imagery (these last two are BIG -- proceed with caution)
- antisemitism

Representation:
- the main character, his family, and his best friend are Chinese
- the best friend’s girlfriend is Japanese

American Born Chinese is about three seemingly separate stories that come together in the end:
1). Jin Wang is the only Chinese American kid at his school, and all he wants to do is fit in and get the “All-American girl” of his dreams to notice him. Unfortunately what he gets is the attention of bullies, the racist ignorance of his peers and teachers, and an ever-growing feeling of shame.
2). The monkey king is a character from one of the oldest of all Chinese stories: The Journey to the West. He’s a shapeshifter who has mastered all of the disciplines needed to achieve immortality, but he still isn’t satisfied: as the other immortals point out, he’s still a monkey. This won’t do.
3). Danny is a popular white boy whose life is “ruined” by his cousin’s annual visits. His cousin, whose name is “Chin-Kee”, and who is an outright racist caricature of a Chinese person. Every year Danny feels so embarrassed after Chin-Kee’s visits that he needs to change schools.

This graphic novel was one of the more satisfying reads of this year -- and of last year too. I’m white, so it’s hard for me to comment much on the appearance of the literal racist caricature or how he made me feel. Or how he should make anyone else feel. I’m not an immigrant either, so much of the book’s themes weren’t speaking to me as the audience, even though I could relate it to elements of my life.

Even so, I found the book powerful, especially to be talking about a part of the non-white immigrant experience that isn’t talked about much these days in YA literature (the shame, the embarrassment, and the later acceptance rather than JUST the overwhelming pride). (This isn’t me knocking on one of them; both are important)

From an actual novel standpoint, the story is beautifully crafted. While it starts of fairly slow (and a bit confusing: what does this monkey king have to do with Jin Wang in the US?), by the time things pick up and there’s a feeling that these stories aren’t as separate as you previously thought it’s time to give up going to bed. You’re reading till the end. There’s so much to reflect upon after reading too -- little details you didn’t catch about each story but now see after they came together were purposefully added.

This is a hard book to rate/review, but I’ll have to rate it as I enjoyed it and how I felt after the experience.