American+Born+Chinese

Walker 1 Ben Walker Mrs. Barth October 22, 2008

Video Conference Reflection The online video conference with esteemed author Gene Yang, author of American Born Chinese was a blast. Before the video conference, he was just some guy who wrote a book that we had to read. Afterwards, however, I realized that he’s a real guy and he’s very kind and rather comedic as well. I found it interesting that there was a transformer on his desk- a coincidence, perhaps, but it fits with the theme of “transformation” (a prevalent theme in American Born Chinese). It was jocular how Gene was telling us that it takes “like an hour” to transform it and how transformers are so complicated these days. Many of the questions helped me understand American Born Chinese- such as the one about why Wei-Chen is a “gansta” at the end of the book (because he wanted to “rebel” against Jin and the Monkey King), and others involving Gene’s past and childhood as well. I appreciated the fact that we had the opportunity to ask these questions as they helped me (and many others, no doubt) better understand the book. Video conferences with authors, if possible, are top-notch. It’s always interesting to see and talk to the person whose book you’ve been reading for weeks, and to see their personality and think if it had any effect on how the book was written. The chance to ask questions is another convenience; it improves comprehension of the book and gives us a shot to inquire about little idiosyncrasies that we may have spotted in the book. In conclusion, I am quite glad we had the chance to conference with Gene Yang. It let me meet an author, ask him questions, and most of all, have fun.

Walker 1 Ben Walker Mrs. Barth October 25, 2008 In Reterospect: American Born Chinese The graphic novel American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang, tells the story of three main characters, but with one single underlying theme. Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, wants nothing but to fit in with the crowd and not be "that weird asian kid". The Monkey King, after being ridiculed for what he was born as (a monkey), wants nothing other than to be a great powerful human. The third story is that of a boy named Danny and his negatively stereotypical asian cousin Chin-Kee. Danny, like Jin, just wants to fit in. As the novel progresses, each character realizes through different events that he is meant to be the way he was created; that being a monkey or being an asian is ok and that everyone has unique aspects about themselves that they need to embrace rather than shove away. I think this book was very captivating to read. It shows that although people can come from very different backgrounds and have very different appearances and lives, that they can still share the same problems (wanting to be someone else besides who they are). The artwork in the book is very skillfully done and pleasing to the eye, and compliments Gene Yang's simple yet effective writing style. I recommend this book to anybody, really. It appeals to such a wide variety of people that you can't say "if you're a girl who likes romance books, you'll love this!". I have not yet spoken to a student in my grade that has not liked the book. I recommend this book to anybody with the ability to read and appreciate any sort of literature.