Now that we have read through the entire graphic novel, we can see how Yang has interwoven and tied all three story arcs together.Wei-Chan's transformer is incredibly symbolic in the graphic novel. In this vain, we see many of the characters making physical transformations (Danny to Jin, Chin-Kee to the Monkey King, etc.). What are some other ways the characters transform? Are these transformations - or changes - for he sole purpose of adapting to American society?
Now that we have read "American Born Chinese" in its entirety I am curious to see if our own perceptions of the novel have changed. Clearly, there is more to the story than initially meets the eye. Why do you think Yang chose to tell Chin-Kee's story in the form of a television sitcom, while on the hand, told the Monkey King's arc as a mythic tale? How do those two threads compare, contrast, or even compliment Jin's story?
I wouldn't say that my perception has changed from the beginning to the end of the story. It is a common place in Asian literature to find stories about self isolation, discovery and learning to except themselves as is. This mainly came about due to the introduction of western/european culture into their closed off nations. Once Asian culture met with a new culture is was strange and upsetting for them. It is much of the same thing for foreigners that come to live in the US. Culture shock can cause some people to think that they must change and blend in in order to be apart of society. It becomes a question of perception and stereotypes versus traditional culture and finding middle ground.
ReplyDeleteEven people that are born and raised in the US can find that they have similar experiences to that of Jin if they move from one state to another or go from high school to college. Especially if you grew up in the country and then move to downtown New Orleans for college (as an example).
I have to side with Jennifer, that I can't say the my perception has changed. I figured that the three stories would tie together in the end. I just didn't see it tying together directly. The story, as I figured, would come together in a more metaphorical sense. The whole point of the three narratives was to deliver the message of racial acceptance. From which, the styles were necessary to describe the lessons that they were presenting. The sitcom was to show what Jin had thought of his own race based on what others perceived it themselves as, and the mythological tale was to provide a lesson for Jin about how he shouldn't change himself because of what others think of him. They all tie together to teach both Jin and the reader about racial acceptance and how much our identities matter to us as a person and not what others think. This is an excellent book for young children to read when it come to this subject in acceptance.
ReplyDeleteJennifer and Alexander hit the nail on the head. I guess I would say that my perception of the book didn't change, but as I read more, I began to see more, which is totally normal for reading. The different story forms were chosen to display the points that each section was trying to make in a more tangible and pointed way; and in making it a literal tying together it clearly showed the reader how the different themes worked together.
ReplyDeleteMy perception of the book didn't change because like some of the others have pointed out, I knew that the stories would tie in together at some point. In reference to the television sitcom vs mythic tale question, I think that parables or fables are a large part of Asian culture. Anytime I've seen a movie with Asian families there is always a scene when the older family member tells the younger family member a story that contains a lesson of some sort, so I think this fits in with how the book was written. As some of the others have said, this story is about accepting others for who they are and avoiding prejudices or racism. Sometimes it's easier to grasp these complex concepts through stories that have a moral lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of the mythic tale and the sitcom is one of the most interesting choices Yang made in ABC. For one thing, I think it causes the story to resist some of the stigma normally associated with the comics medium. By pulling in the broadest possible range of conventions (the sitcom and the epic could not be any further apart in terms of storytelling), Yang is making the point that the ideas and themes he is working worth cannot be confined to a particular type of story, the comic book included.
ReplyDeleteBut more importantly, I think it shows a beautiful and complex fusion of Eastern and Western ways of thinking, which ties together the big ideas of the story with the particulars of plot and character. My absolute favorite example of this was the scene where the monkey king encounters Tze-Yo-Tzu. While the tale of the Monkey King is (according to Yang) based off of a 16th Century Chinese novel called ‘Journey to the West’, the character of Tze-Yo-Tzu is a dead ringer for the Judeo-Christian God (character wise). I found ABC to be filled with this kind of stuff that supports an identity for the characters, and really the book as a whole, that rings true to me as something that is Asian-American.
Besides the physical changes a lot of the characters go under emotional changes as well. Jin begins to realize that lashing out at others because his feelings are hurt is not the way to handle his relationship with others. Wei-Chen likewise allowed his emotional attachment to those around him to alter the way he behaves and likely is not happy with the lifestyle his ran off into. Both transform into stronger and real friends and to learn to better accept themselves in face of the cruelty others direct toward them based on their race.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast seem to show that the struggle between being who one is from birth, the ridicule that natural state can face, and the stereotypes that plague that person is a struggle faced throughout time. Always someone has been considered superior to others be it based on race, gender, social status, class and the like. While it serves as moral in ancient times and mainly comes across as tasteless caricatures in today’s world. One shows that Jin should embrace who he is while the other shows he must not allow other’s preconceived notions of him to change him or hold him back.
I can honestly say I did not think that this story would wrap together that nicely at all. I fully expected their to be some correlation, but I thought it would be more of a thematic joining together of the stories, rather than them actually joining together. I was really impressed by how neatly everything fit together. Normally, I would be annoyed by neat tying things up like that, but even though the story got tied up as far as how they all intertwined, the story itself still was left open, which I loved. I love that the story took on a great purpose of identity, and how similarly to other stories we've read, trying to not be yourself really hurts you, and being yourself helps not only you but also others. This can be seen pretty clearly through the Monkey King, who wants so much to be like the gods that he foregoes his monkey-ness, and even his feet. But in joining with the monk, he is able to make the world a much better place. And for Jin, he feels like an awkward asian kid. He "transforms" into this white teenage dude, and still feels like he doesn't quite fit in because of the annoying cousin. And yet, when he finally changes back, he is able to do good not only for himself, but also for his friend. Maybe anyway. At least, they are embarking upon a road that could lead to something good.
ReplyDeleteI think part of it was that they were meant to be so vastly different that they shouldn't tie in, and a lot of that came from the form. But I think he also just wanted to break traditional stereotypes. Why does he have to tell his asian story one way? He breaks through into different cultures types of stories to tell one big story three different ways.
The changes in this graphic novel are mostly about step-by-step improvement or step-by-step degradation. The novel starts by following the Monkey King's Kung-Fu practice and then later his ways of becoming less of a monkey just because of other people's views. Then we are told Jin's story about his and his mother's moves to several different places and his first impression on his classmates at Mayflower Elementary. The audience also views Danny's humiliation when his extremely Asian cousin visit and how he acts while his cousin in at school with him. These characters believe they must adapt to a completely different culture in order to be happy and fit in, but they are mainly just fighting against themselves. The Monkey King and Jin transform themselves into these new characters but still are not happy or completely comfortable in their bodies.
ReplyDeleteI did not really think of these two different styles complimenting Jin's story necessarily but they really do pretty perfectly! The Monkey King's story told in a mythic style really hints at Jin's heritage and the traditions of Chinese culture while Chin-Kee's story as a sitcom showcases the American new culture that Jin is really living in. Sitcoms do a great job of exaggerating characters' traits and making a person defined by a few aspects. My mom always says about the sitcom Friends, "In real life, no one would actually be friends with these people." This is probably true, but we discussed how these characters are just an exaggeration of certain stereotypes of groups of people, which gives the audience a laugh. It is intended to create a kind of universality because the audience can see themselves in aspects of each character. This is just another level deeper into the idea of adaptation creating comfort.
It’s an old kind of lesson to “Accept yourself instead of what other want you to be”. It’s his way of accepting himself not really the society as a whole. A journey of self-discovery.
ReplyDeleteChin-Kee’s story is like the idea/stereo-type that America has given to Asian countries about interaction with Americans while Monkey King is about not fitting in with the culture that he was born in. So the connection to the three stories is that its all culture related for someone who is put into one culture by one group of people but denied a connection to what they were told was their group.
I think that Transformers cartoon is important too. It shows that television is sometimes as close as we get to other cultures(not that the Transformers represent any culture), but that could be reason why Yang chose to use the sitcom scenes for American Born Chinese. I think that Yang is saying that television can cause us to form negative opinions about people, if we do not know any better.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe blending of the stories did not change my perception of the novel because I saw where it was going on its stance on race and identity, but the tying of all the stories did blow my mind because I didn’t see it coming. Not to mention, I didn’t foresee how well combining all the stories would work.
Yang's choice to tell Chin-Kee’s story as a sitcom was an interesting one. It made it obvious that it was supposed to be a joke. I took the racism of the sitcom lightly because it seemed to be intentional to play of the racial stereotypes of Asians for a greater purpose. By doing so, it worked to show how ridiculous the stereotypes were to begin with. On the other end of the spectrum, The Monkey King’s story was told with a serious tone. I found Jin’s story to be somewhere in the middle of these two. The combination of many different types of storytelling helps the reader to see many different perspectives of the same issue.
I definitely enjoyed how Yang wove the three stories together in the end. I noticed before I began the novel that one of his dedications is to his “Ma, for her stories of the Monkey King.” Because of this, I caught myself viewing Jin as an autobiographical character for Yang as he found his own identity growing up. It seems like he was able to reconcile Ma’s stories with his new culture by weaving the different stories into one that could be his own. American Born Chinese could serve as a new parable for Mas to tell. I personally enjoyed reading this novel and felt motivated to read quickly, so I could find out where Yang was going with the unique plot he created.
ReplyDeleteThe novel is about cultural identity and assimilation, thus Jin must reconcile how much of the identity of his heritage he will concede to the western world in which he is living. He at first attempts too much for the sake of avoiding ridicule and abiding his resentment. By the novel's end though, his identity levels out in the same way as Chin-Kee.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Chin-Kee is coming from his Mother, thus reflecting Chinese tradition. The sitcom, conversely, is a identifiably American convention. Using this format then implies an American perspective and emphasizes the caricature of the Asian as posed by American racism. These represent the forces at play within Jin's experience as a second generation.
Though I don't think my perceptions changed throughout the reading of the story, I think that it was an effective way of looking at the complicated task of assimilation. For anyone who is perceived as "an outsider" (even if that perception is self-imposed), the idea of transformation is very big, very heady, and very scary prospect. In that light, the three stories do sort of offer an analysis of outsiders transforming and adjusting to external pressures (most of which deal directly with pressures of racial stereotypes or expectation).
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the mythic tale vs. the sitcom, both represent the polar opposites for the Chinese identity. The Monkey King myth is one that is greatly tied into Chinese tradition and cultural identity. In comparison, as has been echoed throughout the comments, the sitcom is an American institution, but one that has had a long-history of insensitivity when it comes to identity. I think in both cases, the mediums in question tell a story about what it means to be Chinese, but the narratives put weight into vastly different aspects of that concept.
The physical transformations are powerful, but I think the emotional transformations are far more potent. Every character that transforms goes through multiple physical transformations before arriving right back where they started. The entire point is that it shows something we all go through during our lives. As we grow, we "try on" different personalities and looks in order to impress those around us. At times, we feel a strong need to hide within these personas in an attempt to fit in. However, in the end, we all have to learn the lesson our parents tried to teach us, the same lesson this book teaches, that if we can't accept ourselves for who we are, we'll always be stuck.
ReplyDeleteAs for the presentation of the story, I found that to be fascinating. My take on it is that Yang knew that the needs of the story required certain plot devices. The Monkey King arc was used to show that there are often forces at work in our lives that we cannot hope to understand, but that we must accept. The Monkey King was also used to introduce the concept that we must accept ourselves or remain stuck in our lives. The Chin-Kee arc was presented as a sitcom in order to both reinforce these lessons and to teach us that we must also accept those around us. On a more superficial note, I don't think this arc could have worked if it wasn't presented in such an absurd manner due to the fact that Chin-Kee is a walking stereotype.
Coming back to the question at hand, these two arcs tie into Jin's arc in a very substantial manner. Jin experiments with changing his appearance and personality, often coming to rather comical results. But, in doing so, he neglects his ethnicity and heritage. The other two storylines coincide to remind of of who he is and to help him back on the right path.
I thought this braided narrative worked well. The author was able to take a fairly simple "other" story, relate it to an ancient proverb, and also tie it into Chinese stereotypes that seemed to haunt him. I guess it was necessary to have them all come together at the end, but it left me a little confused. Things seemed to get a little crazy once Jin turned into Danny and we found out his friend was the son of the Monkey King. I tried to think of it all as metephorical instead of taking it at face value, and that helped to make more sense of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the physical transformations are, in many ways, representative of the internal transformations that each character undergoes. Transformation is a common theme in many mythological tales, and here it is used not only to give the story a mythical feel, but also to establish a more visual means to see the characters' transformation. I think that Jin's transformation to Danny...and his transformation back...are both representing the way that Jin tried to fit into American society, and his subsequent realization that changing his outward attitude and appearance would not result in any actual change. Rather, I think that Jin realizes that he must learn to accept his heritage as a part of who he is, and when he does this, he returns to his original form. Similarly, I think that Wei-chun's transformation into a rather selfish, hedonistic, angry and resentful man represents his descent into something of a depression caused by his inability to accept his differences and reconcile them with the current culture. Instead, Wei-chun becomes self-destructive and goes over the edge in terms of trying to assimilate himself into American culture, as this is the only way to completely destroy his racial identity.
ReplyDeleteHaving the Monkey King's arc as a mythic tale is not only incredibly amusing and enjoyable, but it gives the story an added weight of importance. It also gives the reader a little taste of Jin's Chinese heritage and culture while allowing the rest of the story to be framed in the same world as the Monkey King. From a more practical standpoint, the Monkey King also acts as a parallel to the story of Jin Wang. In contrast, the Chin-Kee sitcom grounds the story in what is often perceived to be a real world setting, namely a sitcom. By grounding this story in reality, the racial stereotypes becomes even more powerful as we realize that this racist depiction of a Chinese man is horribly sad, but also sadly real. Furthermore, having Chin-Kee's story told as a sitcom makes us, the reader, wonder what would really happen if a show like Chin-Kee was to be aired on national television. Can you even imagine that? Yet I find it sad that, often, the racism we experience in real life is ignored and forgotten on television, as if it didn't exist. Although the world of television is merely trying to leave out this sad truth of modern culture, I find it sad that we as a culture also often choose to ignore racism.