Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese is a compelling tale of mixed identity and outsiderism. This graphic novel mingles three stories: the identity struggles of an Asian-American boy as he passes through middle school, a recounting of the Chinese myth of the Monkey King, and a sitcom-style farce highlighting the misadventures of all-American boy Tommy and his Chinese-stereotype-personified cousin Chin-Kee.
Exclusion is a common theme in all of the stories. The Monkey King is excluded from a heavenly fete because of his primate status; vowing to reject his background, he loses himself to denial (well, and being stuck under a mountain for 500 years). Jin Wang, the middle-school student, struggles with the prejudices of his classmates, taking out his frustration on his less-Americanized friend Wei-Chen. Meanwhile, Tommy feels defined by the embarrassment of his cousin’s annual visits, to the point where Chin-Kee is blamed for all of Tommy’s troubles, from girl problems to difficulties fitting in at his new school.
