America Born Chinese

     I recently finished reading American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. It was very different from what I typically read because I have never read a graphic novel before, in fact I have never read a novel with any pictures in it. It was a nice having a different form of a novel to read to switch things up. I found that having pictures already there really helps a reader understand the setting because you don’t have to attempt to picture everything in your head since it’s already right in front of you. A theme that can be seen in this graphic novel is betrayal in a couple forms. The first betrayal is that of Jin’s best friend Wei-Chen when Jin decides to try and attempt to kiss Wei-Chen’s girlfriend. It seemed that he thought he would fix the situation of her explaining her problems by kissing her (maybe for comfort). Though this is the opposite of what he should have done, especially if the boyfriend in question was his supposed best friend. Another betrayal is when Jin betrays himself by transforming into something that he has always dreamed to be, he obtains what he believed his true calling was as a young child. He became the stereotypical white male with blue eyes and blonde hair. Though this is not who he was born to be so he was betraying himself and his family because he goes from being a Chinese-American to pure American. 

     The character that developed the most was definitely Jin in my opinion. Though he went bad before he could eventually return to the person that he was truly destined to be. A hint of this can be seen when he at first declines Wei-Chen’s friendship, but almost immediately after agrees and they become friends. Though he later transforms into something that he always wished to be so that he would not be teased by other students. Then in the end of the novel he sees the wrongs that he has done in life and should return to the original him.When doing this he ends up finding Wein-Chen (transformed) and asks to talk with him and he apologizes over a nice cup of bubble tea and their friendship picks up where they once left off. 

     Instead of gender stereotypes in this graphic novel there are culture stereotypes. An example of this is seen when Wei-Chen, Jin, and Suzy are sitting together and a boy said he was getting “Gook Bumps.” If you did not know this term previously it is a racial slur used on people from asian countries. They also make references to Chinese eating dog and say that there is dog in Jin’s dumpling to stay away from this. This bullying thus caused Jin from making any friends until Wei-Chen asked to be his friend. 

     It positions adolescents as wanting to appeal to societal standards and do anything to fit in. Many adolescents struggle with the idea of being liked by everyone at school and specificalyy making friends when going to a new school. Even I experienced this in the fourth grade when I switched schools. I feel that it would appeal to adolescents since they can relate to the situation Jin is out in (minus transforming bodies). This would especially appeal to adolescent boys since they typically prefer comics. 

Rating: B