We discussed this topic a bit in reference to Maus, but it's important to revisit as we read Gene Yang's American Born Chinese. In radically different ways, both texts look directly at questions of race, racial stereotypes, and, in the case of Yang's work, caricature. In Yang's work, we see a satire of racial caricature and its continuing role in popular culture.
How do all comics artists have to contend with the history of caricature in their comics? As we discussed early in the semester, cartoons function so effectively because they work through amplification, eg a character might have oversize or even grotesque features that don't conform to how real people look in order to encourage reader projection or identification. What effect does this have on how comics artists draw race?
In the U.S., as some of the images below attest, there has been a long and deeply troubling history of representing Asian Americans (and dealing with anxieties about immigration and ethnic difference) through caricature.
How does Yang deal with this issue in his work? How does this question of racial (or other identity-based) caricature hang over a lot of the work we've read this semester? How does work like the Asian American superhero anthology attempt to subvert stereotypes associated with Asian American identity, particularly those related to gender?
As some of the exhibits below demonstrate, many groups, especially African Americans and new immigrants to the U.S. (including the Irish), were racialized and subject to caricature during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Trigger warning: These images can be very upsetting!
Check out this:
Exhibit on racist caricature and cartoons
Site on caricature of Asian Americans called "yellow-face"
Slideshow of racist caricature in commercials
Archive of Caricature of the Irish
Interesting article on the politics of caricature
I feel that all comic artists have to address the issue of racism and history of caricature in nearly all of their work. For an audience to identify the characters in the book, they, unfortunately, have to speak to the stereotypes for us to get the points. In American Born Chinese, Yang addresses the races through general stereotypes. The Chinese and Tai Wan characters have slits for eyes. The Tai Wan character, Jin's friend, speaks with a very typical racist dialect. Almost how an American would mock an asian man. Cousin Chin-Kee also speaks with the same dialect as if an American was mocking the native Asian tongue. Also, these monkey drawings are very prudent to the monkeys found over in Asia. This work differs from the other works we've read this semester in race because in Maus it is one jew to another jew, in Persepolis it was an Iranian mostly talking and interacting with fellow Iranians. Also, Iranians and Jews do not look as different to white people as do Asians. In American Born Chinese, Yang has to reach all different races since Jin is American Asian.
ReplyDeleteI definitely find it interesting how comic artists attack drawing certain races. They have the choice of exaggerating the features, or simplifying the character where those features wouldn't be noticed. It is truly difficult. I feel like Yang did an excellent job, he over exaggerated the character Chin-Kee, which is important. While Jin and Wei-Chen were given less exaggerated features and most of the major differences are seen through skin color instead. I think is is important for people to embrace their heritage whenever you can, because it is ultimately who you are. It is important to embrace your heritage and be proud of it.
ReplyDeleteIn Jin's world these stereotypes are equal to embarrassment. Jin is ashamed of his culture, mainly due to the way other students mock him for it. When Wei-Chen arrives at Jin's school, he immediately dislikes him because he represents the parts of himself that he doesn't like. Even he goes as far as to force Wei-Chen to speak english because "you're in America." Wei-Chen represents the caricuture of Asians that Jin tries so hard to distance himself from.
ReplyDeleteComic book artists have to walk the fine line between ensuring races are accurately depicted and created stereotypical caricatures. Some artists refuse to walk to this line, either through insensitivity or to try to make a point. In American Born Chinese, Yang uses racial caricatures to make a point about how difficult it is to be an Asian American.
I've often been shown in history classes different graphics of racial and political slurs that are highly offensive. I think some were a means of poking fun at races, most definitely, but some were to show how ridiculous these actions were against said races. Graphic artwork is often considered to be cartoonish, which has a childish, silly nature. That being said, they are supposed to be seen as light-hearted, and when you put serious undertones and grotesque imagery into something that is supposed to be lighthearted, it's a shock and definitely draws attention to the image.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge to depicting race in comics seems to be that abstraction lends itself to meaning creation in good and bad ways. That is, historically, comics have served as powerful vehicles of racial vitriol. Artists satisfy my concerns with these possibilities by showing an awareness of the implications of their art. Spiegelman addresses issues of race and depiction in an obvious way, by addressing those topics directly in the text of Maus. Further exploration of those issues through conversations with Vladek (Vladek and the hitchhiker comes to mind, as well as racial analogies of hanging, and inversion of color to show the permeability and highly constructed nature of race) – an artist’s treatment of caricature as device can also speak to an awareness of its power. That’s the method I see Yang employ in American Born Chinese. The plot develops in such a way as to call the depictions that carry it along into question. Both artists display that they’ve engaged with the troubling implications of caricature in the text, they then account for the issues that might arise through a sort of meta-statement – as in Maus – or a salvageable logic is borne out by the development of the plot – as in American Born Chinese.
ReplyDeleteI find depicting diffrent races in artwork very challenging because its very easy to fall into depicting stereotypes. if you want to have diversity in your comics then you have to draw characters diversely; but you could go about this in several different ways. I think Yang tackled the issue in a very straightforward manner. he exaggerated features but didn't go overboard into ridiculous (except for when he wanted to). I think it was pretty subtle for the most part. Its definitely a sensitive topic for a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteIn order for readers to follow along with who the characters are, the characters need some kind of distinctive visual cue as identification. Artists are tasked with making these characters identifiable, while still remaining in-offensive.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, for the point of illustrating how Asian-Americans are stereotyped, Yang exaggerates the characters. His overall message is to embrace your heritage, and who you are. We see Jin develop from being ashamed of his heritage, and those qualities that he sees in Wei-Chen, and inevitably learn to accept who he is.