American Born Chinese is comprised of three different story.
1. The first is a story about the Monkey King.
What do you think of how the Monkey King was acting in this scene? What is the purpose of it? What does it symbolize?
2. The second covering Jin Wang, a Chinese-American who grows up with the struggle of being Chinese in the American schooling system.
What do you think of how the other students treat him and Wei-Chen Sun?
3. The third story is about Chin-Kee and Danny. This story is obviously an over exaggeration of Chinese stereotypes.
What is the story trying to express? What is Gene Yang (the author) trying to do with this story?
4. What do you think the purpose of using a graphic novel as the medium? What were the benefit(s) of doing this instead of writing a novel? What were some disadvantage(s)?
1) I am a little confused about the Monkey King story. I think some things that have been mentioned thus far in the Monkey King has been mentioned in Jin Wang's story, but I think the book itself would be more successful without it (my thoughts so far)
ReplyDelete2) I think this is very sad how the other students treat Jin Wang and Wei- Chen, but unfortunately it is pretty accurate. Kids can be so cruel, racist, and ignorant. I do not agree with the behavior, but it is undoubtedly expected in an average American school.
3) I think Gene Yang is trying to shed light on the very common out there stereotype of what Americans see Asians as. The fact that Chin-kee is the cousin of Danny (which doesn't totally make sense) speaks volumes since he is the popular jock type, but his family is the "embarrassing asian"
4) The disadvantage is the audience may not take it as seriously and it is not just blantently putting out there. But I think there are more advantages; clearly this story is about kids in school and racism in the American culture... the fact that it is a graphic comic novel, appeals to elementary/middle school/high school students. So it would be more influential this way.
If I am to understand the Monkey King story thus far I feel like it's essentially about the fact that the Monkey King, who is and will always be a monkey, feels like he has done as much as he can to elevate his status to that of a God. However he will never achieve that status because of who he was born as. His outburst was because of his frustrations of not being allowed at the party.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the students treating Jin Wang as an outcast was to be expected. Even the friends he did make were less than ideal. When Wei-Chen came to the school I was surprised that Jin wasn't warm to his friendship. Even though he was the stereotypical asian, I feel like at this point I would be excited to have someone who wanted to be my friend.
When I read about Danny and his cousin I was confused. I did some research and according to some of the things that I read Chin-Kee is supposed to act as Danny's Alter Ego, the quintessential asian stereotype who does literally everything wrong.
The story of the Monkey King shrouds identity anxiety in fantasy. First, Yang establishes a community, which the Monkey King is excluded from. Despite a number of qualities that should be admired and would explain his access to the party (diety and ruler status, mastery and discipline in matial arts) superficial qualities bar him from participating fully. The Monkey King go home, to folks like him, a separate community which imposes different pressures on the Monkey King. He attempts to rid himself of the traits which bar him from participating in the community he values more highly, so he spends the night “thinking of ways to get rid of it [the smell of monkey fur]” (20). The smell of monkey fur is only one symptom of a condition The Monkey King feels anxiety about and hopes to change.
ReplyDeleteBefore we see Jin in a community dissimilar from him, we see him at the apartment in China town and the Chinese herbalist. These early scenes establish what’s going on with Jin’s identity even in these early scenes. There’s already a separation between him and the herbalist or the parents, he must translate them and their world into English for the reader. English words interrupt Jin’s Mandarin. Words like “More than meets the eye,” and “Transformer” Issues of disguise, transformation, and selling out, issues which will appear in the other stories and is one way of linking the different sections before Yang does it for us in the second half of the book.
The scenes in school struck me for the ways in which illogic is made logic. When Jin is introduced his name is not mispronounced but just flat wrong. His teacher assumes he has moved from China, instead of San Francisco, and his classmates accuse him and Suzy (“the only other Asian in…class” (31)) of all sorts of backwards behavior. The ideas they have about Jin are based so much in stereotype that Jin is unable to participate with them in a genuine way. Wei-Chen’s introduction is similar down to the errors about name and place. Wei-Chen and Jin bond together because they are each denied entrance to a community because of some superficial category (Asianness). This chapter develops the ways in which superficial categories become loaded with action (eating dogs, binding feet, child-marriages) and suggests that this logic, despite it’s ignorance, can and does rule the day. The community imposes a caricatured identity onto Jin and Wei-Chen and this sort of identity suppression becomes a common experience and important part of further identity formation.
The important question posed to the reader in Chin-Kee/Danny narrative comes from Danny. He’s talking to Melanie, trying to account for Chin-Kee’s behavior, and says, “I’m nothing like him! I don’t even know how we’re related!” First, taken out of context I would assume this is a son talking about his father. So, is the Danny/Chin-Kee narrative a way to address anxiety associated with differences between generations of immigrants? Chin-Kee bears some of that logic out. He is caricatured to signify the yellow menace, yellow skin, traditional and backwards ways of dressing, treating women, eating – his intellect intensifies the threat he poses to Danny’s ability to fit into a community.
All 3 of these stories tie into the same theme of finding acceptance of yourself (and your own culture) even in a different societal structure.
ReplyDelete1) The monkey king was treated poorly for being a monkey. He tried to "trancend" and become something else. This effort proved to be a futile one and he was only happy when accepting his identity as a monkey.
2) Similarly Jin tried hard to assimilate himself into American culture. The persecution that he suffered in school due to his heritage drove him to attempt to transform into the culture that he was in. This caused him more pain in the end and at the end of the comic it is inferred that he begins to accept his own identity as a Chinese-American.
3) Chin-kee is an extreme exaggeration of Chinese stereotypes. When it is revealed that Danny is Jin's reinvention of himself, we see that these extremes are Jin's convoluted perception of his own culture. He took the hate that he received for being Chinese and is now projecting it on his cousin.
4) The fact that the story is written as a graphic novel enhances some of the more extreme aspects such as the stereotypes of Chin-kee. It exaggerates some of these stereotypes. I specifically liked the sitcom-like laugh tracks that accompanied all of Chin-kee's frames to drive the point home.
All three of this stories are setting up the characters as those that are not comfortable with themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe Monkey King isnt satisfied by only being a monkey, and those connotations.
Jin also clearly isnt comfortable at his school, he feels out of place, and didnt like associating himself with Wei-Chen, and his own heritage.
And while Chin-kee is the hyperbolized version of Chinese stereotypes, We can see how opposed Danny is to his cousin constantly being around him in public.
The use of caricatures and visuals add to these set-ups and perception the viewer has for all the characters