American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Members in the group:

Jennifer, Katerina, Mary-Catherine, Dawn

This graphic novel was initially very confusing, with the setting of the story shifting from one setting thousands of years ago to the present and back again and the characters changing from one to another.

We discussed that the use of the transformer was a metaphor for the main character, Jin Wang’s transformation.

The flat, one dimensional female characters were disappointing. Why did the author not flesh out these characters more? The only part that did go deeper was when Suzy was relating the story of the horrible birthday party she attended, but that ended with an unwanted kiss?

Why did he leave the situation with Suzy unresolved?  We were all unhappy with that. We were stunned that he kissed her; but knew  the possible reason behind it was because Gene Luen Yang needed to move the story along to it’s conclusion.

We also compared the West vs  Chinese culture folk tales and legends and mentioned that the time periods for the characters actions in the stories were longer for the Chinese, perhaps because the Chinese culture dated back thousands of years vs the Western world’s folk tales only date back a few hundred years, although now that I think further on it, the Bible goes back two thousand years.