American Born Chinese

For this week I read Gene Luen Yang’s comic, American Born Chinese. I was very surprised when I reached the end. It’s interesting to see how the author started three stories that seemed unrelated to each other and brought all of them together at the end. Every character was related. The idea was so cool. And how the artist adapted the story of the Monkey King and fit the character into his own story is really special.

Despite the story going magical in the end (because I didn’t think the three storylines are related), and it kind of exaggerated people’s behavior, it was fairly realistic. I’ve been studying in the US for seven years. I have learned one of the most important things through these years is “be yourself”. And this is what the author wanted to tell the reader through the story. You don’t have to change yourself into someone else to fit the environment. Although sometimes it’s hard, such as the school where Jin was at. People were so mean there. A true friend won’t care about where you from, or whether you look different.