Some might find Yang’s cartooning too juvenile for their taste, but it’s appropriate for the telling of this story, which is targeted at young people. This is a story about friendship and brotherhood as well, which is very Chinese. All three stories sound rather run of the mill, but by adding magic realism and monkeys to the mix, Yang goes beyond what is expected. Danny has to figure out the mystery of Chin-Kee and his embarrassing visitations, while the Monkey King wants to wear shoes and to be more than a simian. He rejects his best friend (another Chinese boy in school) and his own Asian roots to dire consequence. Jin Wang wants to be one of the gang to attract the attention of a girl he has a crush on. It is not a spoiler to say that American Born Chinese is about coming to terms with your own self and racial identity. This is primarily because the story is layered, rather than adopting the straight narratives of contemporaries like Derek Kirk Kim.Īmerican Born Chinese tells three interweaving stories – newcomer Jin Wang trying to fit in in school the sitcom-style mishaps of all-American boy Danny who is tormented by the yearly visits of his cousin from China, Chin-Kee and the familiar story of the Monkey King from the Journey to the West classic, but retold with a twist. A touchstone in Asian American graphic narratives, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese still holds up well almost a decade after it first appeared.
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