In honor of Comic-Con this week, we celebrate Gene Yang and his novel American Born Chinese. For a breakdown of sessions at Comic-Con covering race and identity check out Racialicious’ schedule guide to the convention. Also check out the site’s report on the first-ever Asian American Comic-Con in New York City that happened last week. This dispatch covers the boycott of James Cameron’s anticipated ‘Avatar’, the 3-D film that was a highlight at Comic-Con on Thursday.
Amazon.com Review:
Indie graphic novelist Gene Yang’s intelligent and emotionally challenging American Born Chinese is made up of three individual plotlines: the determined efforts of the Chinese folk hero Monkey King to shed his humble roots and be revered as a god; the struggles faced by Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates; and the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-American teen so shamed by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee (a purposefully painful ethnic stereotype) that he is forced to change schools. Each story works well on its own, but Yang engineers a clever convergence of these parallel tales into a powerful climax that destroys the hateful stereotype of Chin-Kee, while leaving both Jin Wang and the Monkey King satisfied and happy to be who they are. Yang skillfully weaves these affecting, often humorous stories together to create a masterful commentary about race, identity, and self-acceptance (more…)
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Oops! Thanks Rochelle, corrected!
You wrote “James Cameron’s Avatar”, but the link you provide goes to M. Night Shamylan’s (ridiculous) adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender series from Nicolodeon. Correction please?
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE-GREAT READ!
Recently, I sat down to read the graphic (comic book) novel, American Born Chinese. It is about the life of a Chinese-American boy named Jin who struggles with is identity as an…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful and Entertaining
American Born Chinese
is an insightful book that discusses the stereotype and discrimination against Asian American.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Pleasant
I was assigned this book for a youth literature class. I’d never heard of the book or the author. After seeing the cover and reading a synopsis I figured it would be childish and…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Graphic Novel
Author Gene Luen Yang perfectly captures the alienation common to all teen-agers as well as the specific angst only an immigrant, or children of immigrants truly understands.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it
Loved it. Good hearted, and delightfully told.
It’s more appropriate for adults than children, but I think Asian-American teens should be fine with it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
American Born Chinese
American Born Chinese might be my favorite book of 2009. It was so much FUN to read. I laughed out loud several times, from the dialogue and the illustrations.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly good
I’m a member of the Bisbee Book Babes. A member of this book club suggested we pick American Born Chinese to read and discuss for this month’s meeting.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
I loved this comic! As a Chinese person born and raised in North America, I was able to relate to all the subjects that Yang raises in this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding
I had been skipping over the book every time I visited my local library because I just did not want to read about an Asian monkey.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfectly captures Asian-American angst
On many levels this book was a great delight to read. As a second generation Chinese-American who came of age in the 1970’s and 1980’s when there was still a lot of open mockery…