Author: rosmar19

Response: American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

3 different seemingly unrelated stories are interlaced with each other throughout the book and they all tie in together at the end.  The school life of an awkward Chinese American kid.  The tale of the Monkey King.  And a tale of a white kid whose life is haunted by a Chinese stereotype caricature cousin.  I think the school life tale represents a reality.  The Monkey King story represents cultural roots/identity in a pure way that is unconnected to the experiences of the real world (I think the Monkey King is a character many people take pride in and like to identify with).  The white kid/Chinese counterpart story represents the inner fantasy of feeling normal and wanting to be like everyone else but having this uncontrollable negative force prevent/disrupt that experience.

Talking Points: Better Luck Tomorrow

Some recurring elements: misogyny, sexism, racism, rebellion, crime, life pressure, peer pressure, habit, addiction, ego, mental health, impulse, stress, insecurity, envy, aggression, violence.

A point of the movie seems to be to humanize the Asian-American image giving the characters diverse and flawed personalities from each other.

A string of impulses and interactions between all of the characters escalates into a total shit show.  Nobody seems to have control over their lives, themselves, their natures, or their actions, even when they try to be rebellious.

All of the characters are Asian-American.  They are individual personalities from each other but they have similar backgrounds, upbringings, and pressures.  As the quote shared says, them being Asian is not the point, it is a given.

A dark blue background with small sparkling white speckles fades down from the top into a light blue puddle spilled over a light pink surface on the bottom third of the cover.  Small stray pools and drops of blue surround the puddle.  A silver splash drops down the center of the blue puddle with a  planet droplet rising above the splash.  On the planet sphere drop are the letters ELO.  In the right corner, TIME is typed in capital letters.

The starry void of night expands from a puddle in a desert like a higher plane of existence that lies behind the surface of reality.  Stars and planets splash upwards like drops of rain.

Talking Points: Alien Encounters

  • Asian populations draw from their connections to outer cultural sources.  They make cultural contributions to America by introducing culture and media from outer sources while making new original contributions in the spaces they open up for themselves.
  • Growing acceptance, taste, and demand for this foreign flavor of culture grows these cultural movements and creates more spaces and platforms for these contributions to be made.  The culture gets commercialized but also creates opportunities for Asian Americans to assert themselves and participate.
  • As the means to content creation becomes more widely available, Asian American media production and control over their image/identity increases.