Thursday, March 29, 2007
American Born Chinese
In American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang uses the traditional Chinese Story of the monkey king and applies it into a western comic strip style. Diverting from traditional story telling, he emphasize humor in both the text and the behavior of the characters. The parable seems to relate to the theme of acceptance. Although the monkey is a king amongst his people and has studied to reach the level of immortality, he is not accepted by the others at the dinner party due to him being a monkey, something he can’t change. However, unlike what stereotypically happens, the monkey fights back instead of suffering in silence. At the end the story, the monkey king has noticed his difference and ponders how to change himself. It indicates how many Asians feel that they are different and inferior. Many then tries to change the characteristics of their ethnicity. The biggest example is the eye surgeries undertaken mainly by Asians.
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3 comments:
I like how you pointed out that the Monkey King did not just silently suffer but instead chose to fight he unaccepting gods. This shows that the Monkey King does have personal pride and confidence. I also liked your comparision of the Monkey King pondering how he could change himself in order to be accepted with the new fad of Asians getting double eyelid surgery. Your analysis is aided by the fact that you know the traditional story of the Monkey King and can compare it to Yang's modern rendition. I would have liked to hear more about how his telling differs from the traditional story.
I agree with your point that the monkey king represents "Asians". Whose skills are seen as inferior just because they are asian. It also seems to me that the author is sending a message to his readers. Although he doesnt blatently say it, he hides it behind the story of the monkey king and hopes that the reader is able to apply the story to their own lives. His idea of conforming isn't the best possible path of action but it does have some merit, conforming is better than submission. I think he tells people/Asians to not submiss to the will of others, but to choose for themselves a course of action, whether that be being unique or conforming.
Steve, great point about how the author uses a western comic strip style to portray a story about a Chinese American. I would love to hear more about that. I agree with your analysis that the analogy is effective in portraying the difference felt by many Asian Americans. Maybe while you tell me more about the analogy you can also tell me in what way the author highlighted important parts of it, or how the author uses dialogue or portrays the characters to tell us his point.
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