American Born Chinese (2006)

I didn’t quite know what I was getting into with this graphic novel, but it goes on a pretty inventive ride. Different elements come together and interact in suprising ways in this compelling coming-of-age story.

We begin with the Monkey King, an accomplished deity well-versed in arts both martial and mystical, but the other gods look down on and exclude him for what he is. From there, we meet Jin, a Chinese American boy who wants to be worried about friends, girls, and dating, not about the BS he puts up with as one of the only Asian kids in his class. Rounding things out is Danny, a white American teenager who wilts with humiliation at the embarrassingly-stereotypical antics of his cousin Chin-kee, visiting from China.

I’ll be honest, when I first picked this up, I was confusing it with another book and thought it was going to be a graphic memoir (the book I was thinking of was Almost American Girl,) so things got wild pretty quickly as I began reading. But this is a really neat book. It combines Chinese legends, a quintessential “one of the only Asian kids in town” coming-of-age tale, and some outrageous, surreal flourishes. Put together, it all made me go “huh?” at first, but I was quickly drawn into the assorted adventures of the Monkey King, Jin, and Danny.

We jump between our three protagonists in alternating chapters, and similar themes emerge between them. While the ideas explored in the Jin and Danny/Chin-kee sections are nothing out-of-place for an Asian American bildungsroman (Jin’s first day at his new school, for instance, follows plenty of the same beats as Fresh Off the Boat’s pilot,) author/artist Gene Luen Yang examines them with heart and humor. I like that he shows how all of his protagonists lash out and do hurtful things as a result of being hurt, with the natural hope of them learning from their mistakes and rising above how other people treat them so as not to take their hurt feelings out on others. Ideas from the Monkey King sections complement the Jin and Danny sections, and everything culminates in an interesting convergence of the different narratives.

The humor is sharp, incisive, and daring. You feel for Jin in his misguided, puberty-laden desperation as he gets his first crush, and the Monkey King sections are peppered with fun little sly flourishes. And oh man, the Chin-kee stuff is done so far out there. Yang does a great job incorporating every over-the-top-racist Chinese stereotype in the book, drawing them out to ridiculous proportions to increase the cringe factor (“She Bangs,” my god.) I especially like that Chin-kee’s luggage is drawn as giant white takeout boxes, and Chin-kee’’s increasingly Chinese-menu names for his “martial arts” moves are great (“General Tsao Rooster Punch!” “House Special Kick in Nards!”)

Warnings

Thematic elements (including racism,) violence, and innuendo.