About 15 years ago, I came across American Born Chinese, a graphic novel about the immigrant experience in America. I loved the book back then and revisited it again recently in preparation for the series. In terms of story, we have three tales all dealing with the themes of alienation, discrimination and being true to yourself. The first deals with Jin and his burgeoning friendship with recent immigrant Wei-Chen Sun. The second tale looks at the Monkey King (he of Journey to the West fame) who wants to become more human and attain godhood. The final tale deals with Asian-American Danny and his cousin Chin Kee, who represents all of the worst racial stereotypes about Chinese people that Danny is trying to distance himself from.
The stories all weaved and supported each other to reach a highly satisfying and thought-provoking finale. I was intrigued to see how they would adapt it into a series for television, especially in light of how much change there has been in the world since the 2006 book release.
Over the past few years, in wake of the Covid pandemic, there has been a rise in anti-Asian sentiment. There was a huge spike in attacks against this community, especially in America, as Covid ripped through the country. Asian- Americans were scapegoated by some and it led to this community feeling under seige. In this way, the story of Jin Wang, the main protagonist in American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang may offer some people from that community the same joy I felt at finally seeing a more rounded representation of my faith and culture in Ms. Marvel.
I can now say that, after watching the entire run, it stays true to the source material but adds an important thread about racism and how it manifests. In a bold choice, the word racism and its many synonyms is never mentioned but characters like Suzy, the head of the Culture Club talks about this eloquently when she says '... there are a lot of people out there who don't have a voice, it's up to people like us to speak for them'.
In the series, rather than 3 separate stories, featuring respectively: Jin, Chin Kee and Cousin Dannee and the Monkey King, this show interweaves the plots into one cohesive whole centred around Jin's personal and school life. We also have Ke Huy Quan skits as a bad Chinese stereotype in an old 80s style sitcom which shows how much we have moved forward as a society. Ke Huy Quan nearly steals the show in episode 7 when he is confronted with his racist stereotype character 30 years after the fact. He struggles to move on from the role and sees the negative impact it has had on the Asian community and feels remorse for bringing this highly successful role to the masses. It's a complex situation, one where BAME actors and actresses often felt like they had to take earlier roles which demeaned their heritage, however it was often the only job open to them to get on the career ladder. It must be a tough cross to bare.
Riz Ahmed spoke about it eloquently and Ke Huy Quan has spoken about it recently with his recent renaissance after Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, including his impactful Oscar speech; everyone wants to make something impactful, something that speaks to the human condition but sometimes people were not treated as equals.
I loved the way American Born Chinese was done. The actors were all uniformly excellent but the two older actors who portrayed the Monkey King and Bull King were phenomenal, showing nuance in their roles as wannabes trying to make good with the Gods. Also, the show is shot well throughout but the wuxia fight scenes are excellent for a television series, especially the close combat battle between Michelle Yeoh and the Bull King in a small apartment building. The soundtrack is banging and really adds to the emotions of the story.
American Born Chinese is a very watchable and though-provoking show . It asks for those who are struggling to fit into both worlds to be brave and bold and believe in themselves whilst understadning that the world has changed for the better (for the most part).
I loved the show and thought that, whilst very different from the graphic novel experience, it carried a lot of the same messages and themes. This show gets a huge thumbs up from me.
