You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
bingbongbia 's review for:
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
mmm for the 2nd time reading it 8 years later I'm glad I finally got to feel for and appreciate the author and the identity struggles that I didn't want to admittedly when we were required to read and discuss it in 9th grade English.
not wanting to be singled out along with one other guy as the only 2 asians in that class of the rest white kids, it felt easier to be nonchalant about it and let the white kids and the white teacher who took every opportunity to mention her adopted Chinese kid to us drivel it out with the more obvious takeaways from the graphic novel.
at the time I instinctively chose not to relate to author because that was what I had gotten used to doing since I came to the US at 4. and as an adopted girl with and older adopted Chinese sister with one white parent raising us in an early 2000s midwest suburb it was on the surface level easy to deem that.
for me I luckily recall more often micro aggressive and passive judgmental ignorance, assumptions, exoticism, annoying, and exclusive attitudes than the explicitly racist peers and faculty of the author's 80s and 90s setting and experience coming to the US then
episodes of explicitly painful ignorance, racism, or xenophobia that the author experienced as the consistently basis/immigrant/fob experience were again luckily more infrequent for me but unfortunately buried or ignored growing up from the embarrassment.
internalised racism naturally grew still for myself until I left for bigger more diverse city and college, covid, etc. but the 14 years of feeling not okay or good enough with one's native culture(s) during the formative childhood and young adulthood years still stings all too often.
while my ideation of becoming and trying to fit into western ideals definitely had it's phases, it was not at the level that of a Danny ideation, I had no accent barrier nor harassed fob deamor, nor visions of a better life if I wasn't asian literally
but the lessons of a Danny ideation or any ideation of another culture to distance yourself from your own to hold the new ones into higher esteem is naturally important for everyone to accept and to embrace what they like about their own and others without making it an attempt to race to a bottom or top
I imagine this book helped and still helps my freshman peers at the time to grow up a little and take seriously putting themselves in other shoes and perspectives.
Lastly, I think many parts of this book and the other graphic novel we read the next year, the first Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian-french immigrant, should be introduced in middle school and elementary school to help cultivate those much needed perspectives earlier for everyone’s sake: For coming of age aspects, the complexity of immigrant experiences, and the discussions of the nuance of cultural, institutional, and national identities, impacts of language(s) and intent vs outcomes, racism, humor, gender, and belief systems on people’s lives and futures, etc
not wanting to be singled out along with one other guy as the only 2 asians in that class of the rest white kids, it felt easier to be nonchalant about it and let the white kids and the white teacher who took every opportunity to mention her adopted Chinese kid to us drivel it out with the more obvious takeaways from the graphic novel.
at the time I instinctively chose not to relate to author because that was what I had gotten used to doing since I came to the US at 4. and as an adopted girl with and older adopted Chinese sister with one white parent raising us in an early 2000s midwest suburb it was on the surface level easy to deem that.
for me I luckily recall more often micro aggressive and passive judgmental ignorance, assumptions, exoticism, annoying, and exclusive attitudes than the explicitly racist peers and faculty of the author's 80s and 90s setting and experience coming to the US then
episodes of explicitly painful ignorance, racism, or xenophobia that the author experienced as the consistently basis/immigrant/fob experience were again luckily more infrequent for me but unfortunately buried or ignored growing up from the embarrassment.
internalised racism naturally grew still for myself until I left for bigger more diverse city and college, covid, etc. but the 14 years of feeling not okay or good enough with one's native culture(s) during the formative childhood and young adulthood years still stings all too often.
while my ideation of becoming and trying to fit into western ideals definitely had it's phases, it was not at the level that of a Danny ideation, I had no accent barrier nor harassed fob deamor, nor visions of a better life if I wasn't asian literally
but the lessons of a Danny ideation or any ideation of another culture to distance yourself from your own to hold the new ones into higher esteem is naturally important for everyone to accept and to embrace what they like about their own and others without making it an attempt to race to a bottom or top
I imagine this book helped and still helps my freshman peers at the time to grow up a little and take seriously putting themselves in other shoes and perspectives.
Lastly, I think many parts of this book and the other graphic novel we read the next year, the first Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian-french immigrant, should be introduced in middle school and elementary school to help cultivate those much needed perspectives earlier for everyone’s sake: For coming of age aspects, the complexity of immigrant experiences, and the discussions of the nuance of cultural, institutional, and national identities, impacts of language(s) and intent vs outcomes, racism, humor, gender, and belief systems on people’s lives and futures, etc