Blog Post Week 5 Reading

1.

In the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang depicts the struggle of a Chinese American boy, Jin Wang, to fit into American society. Through this struggle Yang illustrates the struggle many Asian Americans face with finding their identity as being American with an Asian background.

2.

In excerpt B at the very beginning on page 194 we see Jin Wang transform from being Asian American to being European American.

This scene represents Jin Wang assimilating into American culture. Not only does his looks change, but he also becomes ashamed of Asian background and beats up his cousin Chin-Kee later on in the graphic novel. This shows his rejection of his Asian identity and the want to just be American. Through this Yang depicts the struggle of early Asian Americans discovering what it means to be Asian American and fit into American culture.

Later on in excerpt B Chin-Kee beats up Jin Wang using various martial arts moves on him such as: “Kung Pao Attack” (208) ; “General Tsao Rooster Punch” (210) ; “Peking Strike” (211) ; and “Hot and Sour Wet Willy” (211).

These attacks are variations of Chinese American dishes that is widely spread in the US. Although, not authentic Chinese food, it represents Jin Wang inner struggle with his Asian American identity. It shows him wanting to fit in, but his Asian background comes back and reminds of who he really is. This scene of him getting beaten up by Chin-Kee portrays the struggle that many Asian Americans go through to find their identity. Like the Chinese American dishes they have an Asian background, but they are American. It shows that there is a weird happy middle area of being both that Asian Americans need to find in order to create their own identity.

3.

A keyword that helps us better understand this graphic novel is assimilation. In Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s “Assimilation” she talks about the different definitions of assimilation and if it is even needed in the first place. One quote she uses to describe assimilation is “a state-imposed normative program aimed at eradicating minority cultures” (15). This is depicted in the beginning of excerpt B of American Born Chinese when Jin Wang transforms completely from Chinese American to European American. He reaches this state of eradicating and ridding himself of his minority, Chinese, background. Yang includes this struggle of assimilation to reveal to the reader the struggle that Asian Americans face in American society.

4.

This graphic novel connects to the in class screening of the Fresh off the Boat episode, So Chineez. In this episode Jessica Huang struggles with being American, but still maintaining her Chinese background, similar to Jin Wang’s experience when he is getting beaten up and reminded of his Chinese background. They both go through a process of assimilation. For Jessica it is to get into the country club which she ultimately decides not to join. For Jin Wang it was literally becoming European American. These two characters from different sources of media deal with the identity struggle of Asian Americans and the search of defining themselves.