American Born Chinese (graphic Novel)

''American Born Chinese'' is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. Released in 2006 by First Second Books, it was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards in the category of Young People's Literature. It won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, the ''Publishers Weekly'' Comics Week Best Comic of the Year, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' Best Book of the Year, the 2006/2007 Best Book Award from The Chinese American Librarians Association, and Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the Year. It also made the ''Booklist'' Top Ten Graphic Novel for Youth, the NPR Holiday Pick, and ''Time'' Top Ten Comic of the Year. It was colored by cartoonist Lark Pien, who received the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Colorist for her work on the book.

Synopsis

The story of ''American Born Chinese'' consists of three seemingly separate tales, which are tied together at the end of the book.

The first storyline is Yang's contemporary rendition of the Chinese story of a Kung Fu practicing Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain, The Monkey King, a character from the classic 16th century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West''. Yang replaces the Buddha from the original story with a Christian influenced deity Tze-Yo-Tzuh. Throughout the story, The Monkey King is unhappy with himself as a monkey and continually tries to become another version of himself. The Monkey King grows larger, taking a more human form. After being rejected from a divine dinner party, he takes down every deity that has been sent to stop him, growing stronger by each kill. The lesser deities plead to the more powerful being in the world, Tze-Yo-Tzuh, to stop The Monkey King. Tze-Yo-Tzuh tries to help The Monkey King accept himself, but when The Monkey King refuses, Tze-Yo-Tzuh imprisons him under a mountain of rocks. A monk named Wong Lai-Tsao is sent by Tze-Yo-Tzuh on a mission to carry three packages to the west and is to pick up his disciple, The Monkey King, on his journey. He finds The Monkey King imprisoned under the mountain of rocks and frees him from the mountain by convincing The Monkey King to return to his original form.

The second storyline follows a child of Chinese immigrants named Jin Wang. His story links the other two narratives, and fits the form of an ethnic coming-of-age. His family moves from San Francisco's Chinatown to a suburb where he goes to school with only a single other Asian student, Suzy Nakamura. The teachers and other students in Jin's school are all ignorant of his Chinese culture. Jin struggles with his Chinese identity and begins to reject it until he meets a new Asian student, Wei-Chen. Wei-Chen is a Taiwanese immigrant who just came to the United States, and he and Jin become best friends. Wei-Chen begins dating Suzy Nakamura, and she joins the group of friends. Jin begins dating Amelia Harris, a Caucasian girl in his class, but her friend Greg asks Jin not to ask her out anymore because he felt she needed to protect her image. Jin perceives this as a personal attack on him because of his race. Angry and confused, he kisses Suzy and the friends have a falling-out. That evening, Jin recalls the fight he had with Wei-Chen and convinces himself that Wei-Chen deserved it. That night, Jin has a dream about a Chinese woman he had met when he was younger who had told him that he could be anything he wanted if he was willing to give up his soul. He awakens the next morning and looks in the mirror to see himself as a Caucasian boy, and he changes his name to Danny.

The third storyline follows Danny, an "all-American boy" and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, who comes to visit every year. Danny is embarrassed by Chin-Kee, who is depicted as a racist stereotype, in traditional queue with buck teeth, speaking in pidgin English. At the end of this narrative, it is revealed that Chin-Kee is The Monkey King in disguise. Danny is Jin Wang, who "transformed" into a Caucasian boy after being prevented from pursuing the girl of his dreams because he was Chinese. The Monkey King tells Danny that his son Wei-Chen was sent to live among the mortals without sin for forty years, but no longer wanted to follow his father's footsteps of serving humans after learning about their self-centeredness. That was what caused him to visit Danny annually. Danny realized that the reason Wei-Chen fell into sin was his fault. He turns back into Jin Wang and embraces his Chinese identity, while also reconciling with Wei-Chen, the Monkey King's son.

Character list

* The Monkey King: A monkey who has lived for thousands of years and mastered all the heavenly disciplines. He yearns to join the ranks of gods, and after being rejected, goes on a rampage. He managed to defeat many gods and goddesses, but was buried under a mountain by Tze-Yo-Tzuh for five hundred years. He was later released by Wong Lai-Tsao and accompanies him on his journey as a disciple. Because of their success, he was granted the role of emissary for Tze-Yo-Tzuh
* Tze-Yo-Tzuh: Tze-Yo-Tzuh () is the creator of the universe and all the deities. In the part of ''American Born Chinese'' that is adapted from ''Journey to the West'', Tze-Yo-Tzuh has the role played by the Buddha in the original story. Yang made this change owing to the fact that he is a Christian (specially Catholic) and not Buddhist.
* Wong Lai-Tsao: Based upon Tang Sanzang from ''Journey to the West''. Wong Lai-Tsao is a monk sent on a journey to Tze-Yo-Tzuh. He is promised the Monkey King as a disciple.
* Jin Wang: Jin Wang is a Chinese-American boy who wants to fit in with the white students at his new school in a suburb. He doesn't like talking too much at school, especially in front of Amelia, the girl he has a crush on. He is finally encouraged by his friend, Wei-Chen, to ask her out. But this relationship is short lived. Greg, Amelia's friend, asks Jin to break up with her because he doesn't think Jin is right for Amelia.
* Amelia Harris: Amelia Harris is a white American girl who is the classmate of Jin and Wei-Chen. Jin has a crush on her.
* Wei-Chen Sun: Wei-Chen Sun is a Taiwanese immigrant who slowly becomes Jin's best friend. His girlfriend is Suzy Nakamura. It is revealed at the story's conclusion that he is the Monkey King's eldest son, and originally wanted to become an emissary, but abandoned his role after being betrayed by Jin. He believed humans to be "petty, soulless creatures" and wanted to spend the rest of his days using the mortal world for his pleasure.
* Suzy Nakamura: Suzy Nakamura is a young Japanese-American girl in Jin and Wei-Chen's class. She starts dating Wei-Chen in middle school.
* Greg: Greg is a white American boy and a friend of Amelia Harris. While he initially appears nice, it is later revealed he is racist, disapproving of Jin's relationship with Amelia.
* Danny: Danny is a white "average" American boy. Danny is always irritated and embarrassed by his Asian cousin Chin-Kee. Since Chin-Kee's annual visits began when Danny was in eighth grade, Danny has had to change schools every year since due to the appearance and mannerisms of Chin-Kee ruining his perception by his peers. Danny turns out to be Jin Wang, under a new identity.
* Chin-Kee: Chin-Kee is a startling caricature of negative Chinese stereotypes. He is Danny's larger-than-life Chinese cousin who, to Danny's embarrassment, comes to visit every year. Chin-Kee wears antiquated Chinese clothing, the traditional queue hairstyle, and literally has yellow skin, buck teeth, and eyes squinting so tightly that the pupils cannot be seen. He loudly speaks extraordinary "Chinglish" at all times, likes to play tricks on people, and possesses an unnatural sexual appetite. Chin-Kee is the Monkey King in disguise.
** Chin-Kee and his behavior are references to various perceived stereotypes, including images by Pat Oliphant and reactions to William Hung. Chin-Kee's name sounds like the ethnic insult "chinky" when said aloud. Yang said that when he heard some people argue Chin-Kee was cute, he stated that he wished he designed the character to appear even more like stereotypes.

Themes

Racial struggles and stereotypes

According to Min Hyoung Song, ''American Born Chinese'' possesses strong themes of racial stereotypes, particularly American stereotypes of the Chinese and other East Asian ethnicities. The primary example of these stereotypes is Chin-Kee, who is the embodiment of the term "coolie," a nineteenth-century racial slur for unskilled Chinese workers. According to Chaney, he is "an incarnation of the 'Yellow Peril' era of racism" which Song defines as "slant-eyes, short stature, sallow skin, predictably Chinese clothing, claw-like fingertips, and long menacing queue". In addition, Chin-Kee continually switches his "L's" and "R's" during speech. The American roots of Chin-Kee's stereotypes are emphasized by the style of the illustrations, which are drawn to simulate an American television show. Song mentions that " emphasize further that this is an image originally formalized in newspapers and popular entertainment and later largely disseminated through the growth of popular mass media, the words 'clap clap clap' line the entire bottom of the panel...This, and the words 'ha ha ha,' are likewise repeated in other panels, replicating the canned laughter and applause of television sit-coms." Just as the media that have enforced these stereotypes have changed, so have some of the stereotypes themselves. Chin-Kee does not only represent a version of nineteenth-century racial stereotypes, but also of the more contemporary stereotype that all Asians make exceptional students. During class with Danny, Chin-Kee knows the answer to every question in every school subject, including algebra, Spanish, anatomy, chemistry, and U.S. government.

Chin-Kee's academic ability brings to light what Cheryl Gnomes describes as a misguided distinction between "good" stereotypes and "bad" stereotypes. Gnomes mentions that a seemingly "good stereotype" such as Chin-Kee's stellar academic performance is still a negative stereotype overall, because if an Asian student is struggling with a particular academic subject and is believed (and/or expected) to be naturally gifted in the subject, the stereotyped student will feel pressured to perform and fear asking for help.

Chaney argues that the Monkey King serves as a metaphor for minority races and/or ethnicities, particularly those who shun their racial or ethnic backgrounds in order to assimilate into the majority culture. The Monkey King is not allowed into the celestial dinner party because he is a monkey, and therefore inherently inferior in the eyes of the other deities. When he is rejected, he is determined to prove to the world that he is more than just a Monkey, and masters the "four disciplines of invulnerability" in order to become "The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal."

Transformation and understanding identity

The primary characters of ''American Born Chinese'' undergo phases of identity crises that are coupled with some sort of mental or physical transformation(s). Chaney states that the novel "celebrates transformations of identity by way of creaturely alterity. Put another way, Yang's characters become not simply other than what they are, but the other that they are." Transforming toys are introduced very early in the narrative to foreground this theme, and the narrative structure itself transforms in the final act, making this a theme not only of the characters but a key element of the way the story is told.

The Monkey King desires to be recognized as a powerful deity, and more than simply a monkey. Through meditation and practicing Kung-Fu, he is transformed into The Great Sage. Chaney argues that for readers, the use of an animal character like the Monkey King within graphic novels and literature in general allows an understanding of human identity, often more than any other type of character. He argues that the use of an animal character with human characteristics, particularly pathos, simultaneously invokes within the reader the Latin warnings of ''memento mori

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