Allison Freeman

APA Citation:

Yang, G. L. (2006). American Born Chinese. New York: First Second.

Genre: Multicultural

Award: Michael L. Printz winner in 2007

Format: Graphic Novel

Selection Process: Library Journal review

Cornog, M. (2007). American Born Chinese. Library Journal, 132(5), 54. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Review:
Gene Luen Yang weaves three stories from the perspective of three different main characters into one grand climax that connects all of three stories and their characters to one another in this wildly entertaining graphic novel.

The first story told throughout the book is the tale of the Monkey King. The Monkey King is a monkey and a deity. He is invited to a dinner party but is refused entrance because he is not wearing shoes. He is slighted by the other deities because he is a monkey, so the Monkey King beats the other deities to a pulp, leaves the party determined to be more then just a monkey and to become the Great Sage. He trains his mind and body to fulfill the principles of invincibility and decides to head out on his own to leave the universe behind. He is stopped by Tze-Yo-Tzu, the universes creator and is imprisoned under a giant rock as punishment for his bad behavior. He is released from his prison under the condition that he assists Wong Lai-Tsao, a priest, on his journey west. Along the journey, the Monkey King finds redemption and comes to terms with being a monkey.

The second story is told from the perspective of Danny. Danny is an American white boy with a crush on his lab partner Melanie, plays on the basketball team and has a good friend on the team by the name of Steve. Everything could fall apart when his Chinese cousin by the name of Chin-Kee comes to visit. Chin-Kee has visited Danny from China once every year since he was in eighth grade and each year, after Chin-Kee annual visit, Danny has to change schools because he dresses like a stereotypical Chinaman, speaks bad English with a Chinese accent, and tortures Danny with his pore manners and obscene behavior. Danny is going to be forced, yet again, to change schools if he doesn’t do something drastic and soon.

The third story is from the perspective of Jin Wang, a young Chinese-American boy who moves to a new neighborhood in a mostly white suburban area from Chinatown. He begins going to a new school where he is bullied and made fun of because he is one of the few multicultural children in the school. He is in school for a couple years when Wei-Chen, another Chinese-American boy, starts school in his grade. Slowly, over time, they become good friends and through his encouragement he finally asks out his crush Amelia. He is then encouraged to break up with Amelia by her friend Greg because he doesn’t think he is right for her. He breaks off their date and is angry, upset and embarrassed. He makes a terrible mistake and says some awful things to Wei-Chen.

All three of these stories weave in and out of each other and finally clash in a crazy but fulfilling ending for all of the characters involved in the stories. The themes of racism, stereotypes and eventual acceptance run throughout the stories especially with the character Chin-Kee, whose name sounds like the derogatory term for Chinese “chink,” and his character has the stereotypical extremely slanted eyes, traditional Chinese garb, Chinese style hat and iconic, long hair braid. The pictures are colorful, bright and almost childish in their depictions of the characters but the style is unique, entertaining in it’s simplicity and was akin to the old 1950’s sitcom where applause would be heard at specific times and laughter was on cue. Gene Luen Yang created a graphic novel that told an interesting mix of stories and revealed the stereotypical and racist things said and done to people of Asian or specifically Chinese descent. Recommended. Grades 8+

American Born Chinese - Likewise Book Reviews

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