American Born Chinese

I’ll start off saying that I really enjoyed American Born Chinese. I had read Gene Yang’s The Eternal Smile several years ago and really loved it, so when I saw Yang’s name on the reading list I had to check this comic out. The comic unsurprisingly focuses a majority of it’s energies on depicting the struggles of a son of Chinese emigrants. The struggles of this kid, named Jin Wang, and his difficulties in fitting in at school and America and general are the main focus of the work. In this respect, the comic was a bit hard to relate to me; the story of hardship due to cultural differences and the difficulty of assimilation is one I have not yet experienced. This did not make the story impossible to get into though. The struggles of adolescence I believe is a story anyone can appreciate.

An integral theme in the comic is identity and how one should hold true to theirs. We see Jin Wang turn away from his own identity for much of the story. We, as the reader, want to see Jin embrace his identity, and yet we can see why he would shun his true self in an attempt to be better received by others. I imagine everyone can admit that at some point in their lives they sacrificed a part of their self to be seen in a better light by others. In this respect Yang chooses a theme universally appreciated, illustrating it with the story of an American born Chinese student.

Aside from the satisfying themes and morals behind the story, I really enjoyed the humor of the story; from the slapstick visuals to the awkward antics of maturing youths, I found the comic funny and entertaining throughout.

Yang grabs to reader, and holds fast to their attention throughout the comic. He does so using the genuinely touching narrative of the main protagonist, engaging visuals, effective humor, and by breaking the story into 3 simultaneous narratives. These three stories appear almost completely unrelated; the only common element at first glance is the Chinese influence, an occurrence that at first glance could be attributed to the author’s influences. Near the conclusion of the story however, we realize that the three narratives interview and connect nicely with out another. I found this a rather satisfying way of grabbing the reader’s attention.

Maus

As I was first reading Maus I have to admit, I found it rather slow. The topic of the holocaust, and conversely contemporary Jewish family life, is one that I find very hard to relate to. The story is more or less a familiar one for me; having studied to holocaust throughout my entire academic life, I didn’t find this narrative expressing any new information on the topic. The only thing that might be different would be the way in which this material is being expressed. This, in my opinion, is another area in which Maus falls short. I found the design and layout of Maus uninteresting; the illustrations were generally small and minimalistic, and relied more upon subtlety than fast, attention grabbing visuals. One thing I did enjoy in Maus however, were these subtle details that can be found on the pages of the comic. On every page, underneath the drawings, hid many expressive details that Art sprinkled upon the pages. I specifically use the word hid; these details often hide underneath the minimalism. Oftentimes one of these tertiary details was expressed as a single or several less; a very rough representation of whatever was depicted. I’m glad that Art included these details to add an extra level of immersion, but at the same time I wish Art’s style was a bit more attention grabbing.

Specific to Art’s visual technique, is the depiction of different races as different animals. Jews are depicted as mice, whereas Germans are shown as cats. The obvious symbolism is comparing the plight of the Jews against the Nazis as that of a mouse attempting to survive a cat. Poles meanwhile are depicted as pigs. I found this interesting, as the poles in this narrative are shown in several different lights. In some portions of the story the Poles are selfish characters who would neglect or even turn in the Jews to benefit themselves, whereas other poles in the story as shown as selfless characters who put themselves on the line to help Jewish survivors. I found the portrayal of pigs very apt, as pigs are neutral to the struggles of both cats and mice. In the story the Poles can shift in favor to either the Germans or the Jews, so I found this rather appropriate. An interesting touch that I enjoyed was the visual metaphor of using masks to show when a character is masquerading as a different race. This was one of those details that I might have actually missed if I was reading the comic a bit less intently. The masks would be denoted at times with one or two rough lines, it took a bit of imagination at times to take Art’s illustration in the direction that he would want.