As we have seen in previous readings, American Born Chinese is another comic that is touching on the
personal life experiences of its creator from a child’s perspective. The
greatest difference is the use of a Chinese mythological folktale as a
secondary story running along side the primary narrative.
Each frame-by-frame movement of the story takes the reader
through various moment-to-moment transitions, subject-to-subject transitions
and action-to-action transitions. However we rarely see an aspect-to-aspect
transition during the story. If you think back to Scott McCloud’s chapter
‘Blood in the Gutter’ these transitions show a lot of “happening” moments.
How do you think that these transitions invoke the reader’s
emotional response to the story? Or do you think that these transitions bring a
different light to the story being told?
Do you feel
that these transitions differ in their use when compared to how such
transitions were used in previous stories?
Remember Scott McCloud said, “Traditional western art and
literature don’t wander much. On the whole, we’re a pretty goal-oriented
culture.” So a great deal of western art and comics often emphasize ‘getting
there’ versus ‘being there.’
How do you think this concept of ‘getting there’ versus ‘being
there’ is shown in or has impacted how this story perceived?
I think that these transitions evoke an emotional response by showing these important moments in the life of Jin Wang. The book is fairly fast paced, somewhat like a memoir being said aloud, and only showing the important parts in detail. The mode of transitioning used in the tale of the Monkey King is similar, but has moments where it uses action-to-action transitions to show specific scenes play out in detail. These are most commonly used in the Monkey King's fight scenes. However, the semi-sitcom segment of American Born Chinese telling the story of Danny and his cousin, Chin-kee, is almost entirely moment-to-moment and subject-to-subject.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think that each of these unique transitions evoke emotional responses in a different way. The story of Jin Wang is fairly emotional and gives a deep look into the struggles of looking Asian despite being born and raised in America, while the tale of the Monkey King presents a more epic scope and is incredibly entertaining, and the segment with Danny and Chin-kee is fast-paced and reminiscent of American sitcoms.
I think that the concept of "getting there" versus "being there" is excellently shown in American Born Chinese because it takes three separates stories, which seem unrelated and can simply be described as "being there," eventually progress until it is revealed that they are all the same, and the reader realizes that the whole novel has just been one big attempt at "getting there" to the novel's conclusion. In this way, American Born Chinese combines Western literature with Eastern storytelling in much the same way that Jin Wang ultimately learns how to accept his mixed heritage, being Chinese in ancestry and American in birth, and incorporate it into his identity.
I have to agree with Sebastian on this one. The whole point of the different transitions was to emphasize how important the moments were to the author. This book clearly handles its transitions very differently from most of the books that we have read thus far. It seems to be ore fast paced than the others, but it still states the emotional aspect of fitting in. I'll admit, the story was confusing at first, but I managed to understand it better as I kept reading. This is one of those book where you have to read the whole thing and wait for the ending to make sense. This is pretty much the concept of ‘getting there’ versus ‘being there’. A clever way to bring the story together through three narratives.
ReplyDeleteReally neat video, thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI had to look back to see what I thought about the transitions. The first read, I didn't really notice them, except to say that I thought this book moved along a lot faster than the previous ones.
I could just be making this up, but it seems like the transitions leave a lot more "gap" during the probables than in Jin/ Danny's stories. I think it really illustrates how timeless these probables are. They usually happen so long ago, and involve time frames that we can't really comprehend (monkey king getting trapped under rock pile for 500 years is one used in American Born Chinese).
The transitions help the reader to be invested in what’s going on with Jin, Danny, and the Monkey King. Rather than speed through time or ideas the reader is able to be invested in the issues that Jin and the others face. By slowing down what goes on between transitions we’re able to better sympathize with what Jin is going through and better understand the issues that do not affect just him but others Asians as well. Unlike previous transitions like in Shortcomings and King we are invested in the here and now rather than a rapid succession of events over time to accomplish what it wants to say: This is especially true of King which has to chronicle a man’s lifetime in certain number of pages.
ReplyDeleteI don’t feel like this story has a huge sense of getting there. It’s fully invested in being there which is important for the issue it wants to focus on. This is primarily to get across how challenging it is being a minority especially in such impressionable years of elementary and middle school. Childhood transition into the teen years is a very frustrating period in which one doesn’t really know who they are or what they want to be but are completely aware of who everyone else thinks they are especially based off race. Being there rather than getting there puts us in the position and can be a big reminder for those who have faced similar issues that Jin does of how hurtful it is and how it can change their whole attitude about themselves and how they treat others.
I agree that Yang is using a ton of action to action, specifically where he’ll freeze the figure and change the dialogue. I think Yang is using transitions slightly differently than some of the other stuff we’ve read because the way he’s organizing and pacing the story is SO different. It’s important to understand the link between those two things, the overall structure of the story as a comic is inextricably tied to the pacing and the sense of time. For example, if my story is trying to span thirty years of linear storytelling in ten pages, the pacing will feel way different than if I’m trying to span the length of a conversation at a coffee shop in twenty two pages.
ReplyDeleteYang is using structure pacing really creatively in two different ways. First, since he is being extremely selective in the amount of different scenes he’s depicting (especially in the Jin and Danny storylines), he can slow down the pace to articulate details of the conversation and the interactions. We’re able to get a lot of reaction panels without dialogue which allow us to internalize the emotions of the character. Secondly, Yang’s big organizational strategy in rotating between these three very disparate stories allows him to knit together scenes in each narrative that would seem weird if they were placed back to back. Best example I can think of would be the Monkey King storyline when God buries him under the weight of his on hubris for 500 years. Because Yang breaks the scene there and rotates around to his other stories, by the time we come back to the Monkey King we actually feel like it’s been 500 years.
Yang is actually using a narrative structure in order to tell a clear and compelling story.
ReplyDeleteI saw these transitions as a way to connect to people who may not understand the direction he’s coming from. Example would be the panels that have the Chinese parable then bring it in as a real life example. Actions to explain actions that may have been separate between a certain amount of time. It’s a bit of reflective psychology-- why do I do this?—for him to figure out where he wants to go.
These transitions are quicker than other ones. Previous stories slowed down to talk there time, almost like they were afraid to lose the audience while this story was “alright time to swim or sink”. It was probably in a way to connect to everyone instead of focusing on extreme difference. The story was trying to connect in the basic way of “I am American, let me fit in”.
The pacing in "American Born Chinese" has been far more frantic than other graphic novels we have read so far this semester. The three stories seem to be heading towards an inevitable collision, which (for me) gives the novel additional propulsion. The transitions meanwhile work to keep the story fast paced and accessible.
ReplyDeleteBoth Shortcomings and American born Chinese are very fast paced novels compared to the other works we have read. I was able to finish both in one sitting in just little over an hour, and I am not usually a fast reader by any standards. I believe the transitions in American Born Chinese are great because not only do they mainly focus on important details, they also work to keep the reader’s interest.
ReplyDeleteI think that the different transitions make the reader want keep reading. The transitions are interesting and give the reader some things to think about along the way. The transitions are a very important part of the book it propels the reader and it helps to give an understanding of the main character.
ReplyDeleteThe transitions help the reader connect to the story in a way that isn't always possible. None of the three stories in this book have a very fast pace, so the transitions are able to go from moment to moment. In doing so, we get more of the story and connect more with the characters. This couldn't be accomplished in most of the other stories we read simply because the plot was covering far greater chunks of time. I wouldn't want this story to cover more time because we'd start missing way too much.
ReplyDeleteAs for "getting-there" versus "being-there", I think this book has an interesting mix of the two. The Monkey King story is very much about "getting-there", but the other two stories are near perfect mix of the two. Jin Wang has done a reasonable job of starting to fit in, but is still fighting against a bit of racism. Danny is already seen as cool, but he feels strongly that his cousin is constantly destroying his image. These two stories are, in essences, about characters that think they have so far to go, but are actually already right where they want to be; hence the mix of "getting there" and "being there".
This book seems to be covering a lot of ground at a fairly breakneck pace, so the use of transitional space within the gutters is an effective way to keep up the pace of the storytelling. Really, the use of gutters is not unlike the importance of editing in movies; it allows the medium to stretch or shrink time in order to devote the proper amount of attention to certain events or scenes. Here we see that play out on the page in that entire scene transitions are capable of unfolding on a single page. Considering the scope that this autobiographical work is attempting to reach, that freedom of storytelling is a necessity.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that as a story about the Westernization of an Easterner, the story is much for of the West than East (in the way that it reads, at least). I find this text to be no more about 'getting there' than our previous assignments. That is to say that the narration is no more ornate. However, the usage of parable (which uniquely becomes plot) is a ornament of the narrative that is new. I don't find a resulting emotional response from the transitions, but I think the author does a fairly good job at pacing the his story efficiently, which requires certain jumps.
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