Gale - A Study Guide for Gene Yangs American Born Chinese

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Gene Luen Yang

2006

Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel, American Born Chinese, was originally serialized online on Modern Tales.com. First Second Books published the complete story in print in 2006. American Born Chinese has the distinction of being the first graphic novel to receive the Michael L. Printz Award and was the first graphic novel to be nominated for the National Book Award. The full text is no longer available online. Yang, however, does provide a preview on his home page (http://geneyang.com/american-born-chinese).

American Born Chinese contains three seemingly unrelated narratives that are creatively linked together in the end. The book begins with an account of the Monkey King, a traditional Chinese folktale. It then details the life of Jin Wang, a Chinese American boy who moves to a predominately Caucasian suburb. The final story concerns the Caucasian American Danny and his cousin Chin-Kee. Chin-Kee is a negative Asian stereotype who makes life difficult for his cousin. Each thread of the graphic novel is drawn into an exciting conclusion that explores themes of self-identity and self-acceptance.

Yang was born in Alameda, California, in 1973. Yang describes his childhood in the California suburb of Saratoga as complex in his Kartika Review interview with Sunny Woan. He saw Saratoga gradually shift from a predominately Caucasian population into a diverse neighborhood that came to include people and cultures from around the globe. The child of Asian immigrants, Yang grew up listening to traditional stories from China such as the Monkey King, which he later included in his graphic novel. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in computer science and a minor in creative writing.

Yang began drawing comics while he was in elementary school. Yang created Humble Comics in 1996 as a vehicle to publish his work. In 1997, he won a Xeric grant to create Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. Yang has created comics with different themes over the years, including The Rosary Comic Book, which incorporates religious themes that reflect the artist's personal beliefs. Many of his other comics are more fantasy-based. Yang self-published some of his early work and serialized other stories, including American Born Chinese, online.

The print publication of American Born Chinese in its entirety in 2006 brought the author mainstream popularity as he addressed the issues of multiculturalism, assimilation, and identity. He followed this success with a 2009 collaboration with Derek Kirk Kim, The Eternal Smile. Yang published Prime Baby in 2010 and worked with Thien Pham on the 2011 comic Level Up. Several of Yang's comic tales have received the Eisner Award, which is considered the Academy Award for American comic writers.

As of 2011, Yang lived in Fremont, California, with his wife and children. When he was not creating comics, Yang teaches computer science at the Catholic high school Bishop OLaDowd in Oakland, California. He is also a strong supporter of using comics in education.

American Born Chinese is a multi-narrative work that develops the three distinct stories of the Monkey King, Jin Wang, and Danny and Chin-Kee. Yang unites these stories at the conclusion. The three narratives are broken into different sections of the book that resemble chapters. As a graphic novel, American Born Chinese tells the stories using sequential art.

Media Adaptations

• Yang explains the concepts behind American Born Chinese in a YouTube video posted by the America.gov Web site on June 4, 2009.
• Yang discusses his work in a lecture at the University of California Berkley at the Story Hour in the Library Web site (http://wn.com/Story_Hour_in_the_Library__Gene_Yang).

Individual pictures or panels are created to depict moments. The panels are placed in sequence to drive the action of the story, and the text supports the graphics. The square boxes hold narrative text, and the balloons have dialogue or thoughts. The text is written in capital letters so that it is easier to read. A page featuring a character's picture introduces his chapter of the book.

This multi-narrative story begins with the modern retelling of the Monkey King, a centuries-old Chinese fable. The first scene is told by an omniscient narrator and describes a banquet of the gods in heaven. The Monkey King smells the food and becomes hungry. Born out of a rock, he is a Deity in his own right and rules the monkeys on Flower-Fruit Mountain. He has also mastered Kung-Fu and the four heavenly disciplines to become immortal. The Monkey King decides he should attend the banquet of the gods in heaven because he is a deity. The gods, however, refuse to associate with him because he is a monkey and does not wear shoes. The Monkey King is insulted and forced to leave. In retaliation, he attacks the guests at the party. When he returns to Flower-Fruit Mountain, however, he feels ashamed of being a monkey. The anger and shame he feels as a result of the rejection of the other gods will affect his future actions.