American Born Chinese

Yang, Gene Luen. (2008). American Born Chinese. New York: Square Fish.


Paperback | $16.95 USD | ISBN-13: 978-0312384487 | 240 pages | YA Fiction, Age 12 & up

Jin Wang moved to a new school in the third grade.  His teacher introduced him as a new student from China, but Jin is from San Francisco. Sigh.There was an Asian girl in Jin’s class and the students all thought they must know each other. Sigh again. When another new student named Wei-Chen came to Jin’s school, the teacher again introduced him as though he was from China, although Wei-Chen is from Taiwan. A third, but not the final sigh. These three Asian students endure quite a bit. They have to deal with some cruel bullies at their school. This is just a snippet of the stereotypes that exist and are shared throughout this story.

The next character we meet is named Monkey King. He is the most powerful monkey on all of the earth. (In real life, he is Yang’s favorite fictional character and one that he read about throughout his childhood.) The problem is Monkey King doesn’t want to be a monkey – people laugh at him like he doesn’t belong. He is upset because he is a King after all and just wants to be considered an equal. He tries to change his appearance, become something he is not, and has to learn a few hard lessons along the way. The last character we meet is Chin-Kee. His poor cousin Danny who lives in America has to endure his yearly visits. I say endure because Gene Luen Yang writes Chin-Kee to represent the most outrageous of stereotypes that people have against Chinese people. Chin-Kee turns out to be someone you would least expect. Danny isn’t who you would expect either. Finally, Wei-Chen is someone else too! Jin learns some lessons and any reader should appreciate how difficult it is to be an American Born Chinese. 

This amazingly intertwined graphic novel does a great job connecting these three story lines. It is done in a symbolic way and you won’t find out until the end of the story. All of the characters in the story have trouble with their position in life – they all feel they want to change to belong or be accepted. The situations that each one found themselves in are stereotypical and show how much Americans judges other culture groups.

This book would be useful for every library that is seeking to break down the stereotypes and to appreciate others for their cultural differences and heritage.  The repetition of stereotypes is evident of the discrimination and stereotypes Asians who live in America experience. This book would be useful for all libraries whether or not they have diverse patrons because it is a story that reminds us all that many different types of people came to America and live in America. We need to be exposed to literature such as this so we can all learn to accept and appreciate cultures for their differences.

Author Gene Luen Yang won several awards for this graphic novel including the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Winner, 2007 Eisner Award Winner - Best Graphic Album – New, and it also was the first graphic novel to be nominated for the National Book Award in 2006. He has been publishing comics since 1996 under the name Humble Comics. To learn more about Gene Luen Yang and his work, please visit his website at http://geneyang.com.