Week 8

The comic I chose to write about is American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. I really enjoyed the concept of this story because I feel a lot of American immigrants can relate to it. I have friends who went through this and felt close enough to share that with me and I feel that it's definitely something that needs light shed upon it. A high school comic like this is a good way to approach it in a more relatable way. The most interesting part to me was the section about Danny, the white boy being visited by his Chinese stereotype cousin. It turns out Danny is Jin Wang, who has been assimilated/whitewashed in hopes of fitting in at his white high school. This cousin actually turns out to be the Monkey King (another symbolic character in the story) who is attempting to remind him of his Chinese culture/who he is. I found this to be an unexpected sort of twist. It drove the narrative and lesson of the story in a unique way. Many white people do not have the awareness that their friends of color are watering themselves/their culture down around them in order to fit in or not be stereotyped. I feel that this comic really clarifies how people feel when they are forced to assume a role they do not want.