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American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

mee — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:32:02 +0000

American Born Chinese is a graphic novel comprised of three interrelated stories: an American-born Chinese boy who tries to fit in at his school, the legendary Monkey King, and an American boy who is extremely embarrassed by his visiting cousin who fits into the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype. The stories come together at the end in slightly bizarre way.

Anybody who’s born in Asia region or has Chinese heritage would know the story of the Monkey King, since it’s one of the oldest and the most popular Chinese literature that ever was. I grew up with countless variations of the story retelling and derivation: movies, tv series, manga, anime, illustrated books, you name it. So I would be interested to know if anyone outside the culture ever heard of the story. I can’t remember a time when I lived without the Monkey King, so I just assume that everybody in the world must know about it! Well, do you? If you’d like to read more about the origin, check out the wiki page of Journey to the West, which is probably a good introduction to the story. Or you can read Yang’s reasoning behind all three stories, which also includes some history of the Monkey King.

Out of the three stories, I enjoyed the Chinese cousin Chin-Kee the least. It’s too over the top with eating cat gizzards and peeing in a coke can for someone to drink. He’s disgusting, annoying, and frankly, almost insulting to Chinese people. I’m not sure if the story’s inclusion is really necessary and I wondered a bit why Yang put it in. The conclusion at the end of the book didn’t convince me. I read Yang’s story of the origin of the character (at the very end) and I got to understand in some way. He said,

“In order for us to defeat our enemy, he must first be made visible.”

I can’t ask for more. It’s the perfect way to explain his decision and I respect it.

The Monkey King story is pretty close to the original one and I do think I could appreciate it more having been so familiar with the original story. But inevitably, I enjoyed most the good old story of Asian kids wanting to fit into dominantly white society. Along with him, there’s a Japanese girl and another boy from Taiwan in school. It’s always interesting point that the ignorant always group all the Asians together like a big pot of slanted eyes people.

While the graphic novel is fiction, it’s not hard to imagine that parts of it are biographical. Yang was born in 1973, and I imagine there were probably few Asians in school in those days. I’m not sure about American school these days, but in Australia I do see plenty Asian high school kids all over the place. So the difficulty to fit in may not be as high as, say, 20-30 years ago.

One of my favorite scene is the one where the two Chinese friends meet at some cafe drinking bubble tea. Bubble tea! For you who don’t know, it’s Taiwanese drink that’s really popular in East Asia and overseas. It usually comprises of milk tea and black tapioca balls in bite size. I happen to like it as well, and there were a lot of times that I hung out with my Asian friends drinking bubble tea — in Australia, Canada, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia. Bubble tea is ubiquitous! It brought me fond memories, just thought I share. It’s such a perfect ending to the book, as for me, it shows acceptance of who you are.

It’s kinda weird that I probably spent more time compiling this review than reading the book (it’s really short). But I guess it’s the type of book that could invoke all sorts of reaction and feeling. And the more I dwell on it the more I appreciate the uniqueness of this book. Who has ever produced anything like it before? The rawness of it really hits you on the head.

American Born Chinese is published by First Second, whose collection looks absolutely amazing. I’m most interested in reading Kampung Boy by Lat (kampung means village in Malaysian and Indonesian) and The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa (Korean author). Gorgeous covers!

2006, 240 pp

Gene Yang website | Gene Yang on American Born Chinese

Awards
2007 Michael L. Printz Award (First graphic novel ever to win. Won over the Book Thief by Markus Zusak in that year.)
2007 Eisner Award Best Graphic Album – New
Finalist for 2006 National Book Award – Young People’s Literature (First graphic novel ever to be nominated)

Challenges
Book Awards III (book #5), Dewey’s Book (book #12), Graphic Novels (book #17), China Challenge (book #1) — Not sure if this book counts, since half of it is set overseas, not China, but the Monkey King story? Surely it counts!

Also reviewed by

Didn’t. — The Zen Leaf | Bermudaonion | The Bluestocking Society | Thoughts of Joy

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Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham

mee — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:29:08 +0000

I read Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall last month, fell in love straight away, and couldn’t wait to pursue the rest of the series. Legends of Exile is really the first in the series (1001 Nights of Snowfall is the prequel). Here we get introduced to Bigby the Big Bad Wolf (though he assumes body of a man as explained how he came to be in the prose story at the end of the book) and our beloved heroine Snow White. Snow is the the Director of Operations in Fables, the kingdom of fairy tales folks that ran away from their homelands to New York City (the fictional land :), because they were chased away by the Adversary. New York City is called “dreary mundane place: the one world the Adversary seemed to take no interest in.” And so there stay the exiles, trying to live alongside each other in their new home. They created the General Amnesty, in which all past crimes, debts, and grievances are pardoned and can never be brought up again. So bad or good in their previous lives, they all start anew in the new world (theoritically, at least).

At the beginning of the story, Jack (from Jack the Beanstalks) rushes to Bigby’s office to tell him something bad has happened. He later found out that Rose Red, sister of Snow White, is missing and her apartment is totally wrecked, splashed with her blood all over. Jack is Rose’s boyfriend. We quickly get introduced to the other characters as well. Charming (The Prince): Snow’s ex husband, Beauty and the Beast, Flycatcher (the Frog Prince), Cinderella, The Pig (of the Big Bad Wolf. I love the pig!), The King, and Bluebeard.

Bluebeard drove me crazy. I kept wondering which character from which fairy tale he is taken from. My first guess was the King of Arab, who kills his newly wedded bride every single night (and that is mentioned for Bluebeard), but in 1001 Nights of Snowfall Snow White visited the King of Arab, so it’s not him. Somewhere in Wiki it’s mentioned that originally the Bluebeard character design was supposed to be that of Captain Hook, but got cancelled because of Copyright issues. Anyway, I guess at the end he’s a nobody, just one of the villains.

Did I say I loved this series? It’s great! I love the setting, the personality of the characters, the twisted fairy tales, everything. The main story itself of Legends in Exile is just so-so in my opinion, but it’s a great outlet to introduce all the characters in Fables. I also like how each Chapter is started, for examples:

Chapter One: Old Tales Revisited
In which we meet many of our principal players and get just the first hint or two of some of the myriad troubles to come.

Chapter Two: The (Un)Usual Suspects
In which our intrepid detective delves deeper into the mystery of the missing Fable, and a prince is reunited with his old lady love.

Will try to get the second in the series soon. Hopefully soon!

Rating: 4 out of 5
Pages: 127
Publication year: 2002

Awards
2003 Eisner Award for Best New Series and Best Serialized Story

First line
Once upon a time.

Last line
The End – for now.

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Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

mee — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:09:21 +0000

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a prequel to the Fables series written by Bill Willingham. Now I’ve been really really wanting to read Fables series, but just can’t get my hands on the books from my library (long story). So when I saw 1001 Nights, and read the introduction which says that I can read this part without having to read the main series beforehand, I grabbed it, and finished it in half a day.

In 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Snow White visited the Arab Sultan (the one in 1001 Arabian Nights, the one who marries a virgin every single day and kills her in the morning that follows) to seek alliance between Fabletown and the Sultan’s Kingdom. Instead of Scheherazade, Snow was in the company of the Sultan and tell him stories after stories about the past and tales of the Fables. From what happened to Snow White after she got married, how the Big Bad Wolf got to be, the devastating life events of the Frog Prince, the history of the witch who lived in the candy chocolate house (who trapped Hansel and Gretel), and some minor stories.

What can I say? I LOVE it! The art is amazingly good. For this particular book, there are a bunch of illustrators, who each illustrates one story. So you can see a big difference of style between one story to another, but equally great. It’s so good that I couldn’t stop flipping back and forth, indulging in the beauty of the illustrations. Gorgeous. Wonderful. (insert more words for “very good” here)

I don’t think this Fables is appropriate for young children. What with naked Snow White and more adult themes around some stories. To this day I can’t stop wondering why graphic novels are always placed near/at the “Children/Picture Book” section in the libraries. Having read some graphic novels, I can assure you I wouldn’t want my kids to read them in their early age. When would all adults realize that not all books with pictures are kiddies?

Anyway, this book is perfect for adults who enjoy fairy tales retellings. I can’t praise it high enough. Great cover too! I’d definitely chase after the rest of the Fables series. To be honest, if 1001 Nights is a representation of the series, I’d like Fables much more than the Sandman series (I realize I just read the first in the Sandman series and you all have said it’s not a good representation of the whole series).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Pages: 140
Publication year: 2006

First line
Once upon a time, as all stories of this type must begin, a lovely woman traveled to a far-off demon-haunted land of magnificent jeweled cities, cast adrift in a sea of wind-tossed desert.

Last line
“He likes stories,” Snow said.

Award
2007 Will Eisner Award for Best Anthology, Best Short Story (Bill Willingham and James Jean, for A Frog’s Eye View), Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (Jill Thomson, for “Fair Division”), and Best Cover Artist (James Jean) [source] [source2]

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The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

mee — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:20:15 +0000

The Complete Maus is a memoir presented as a graphic novel. The complete story was published in 2 volumes: Part I: My Father Bleeds History in 1986 and Part II: And Here My Troubles Began in 1991. It recounts the struggle of Spiegelman’s father to survive the holocaust and also the troubled relationships between the author and his father. It draws largely based on the father’s recollections of his experiences.

The characters were drawn as half-animals (with animal head and some characteristics, but with human body). The jews are depicted as mice (hence the title, which is “mouse” in German), the Germans as cats, the Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, and other minor animals. This choice feels so surprisingly natural that I can’t imagine it be done in any other way. The very few simple lines show the expressions very well. Even though all the (same) animals look pretty much similar apart from their clothes, I never lost track of who is whom. Love love love the arts. Spiegelman must be a genious.

I’m also very fond of the parts that show Spiegelman’s relationship with his father. How the war had affected so much, even to generations after the direct victim. How I wish to hear his mother’s side of the story. I found it completely ironic that the mother committed suicide after surviving a holocaust with no note. It was soo very very sad when at the end of the book, upon finding each other again, the father said “We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after.” What an irony :(

At first I found the way they talked was kinda funny, and thought it was a translation mistake. I think it was done on purpose to show the way the father talk English (which is of course not his first language). After a while I started to find it adorable and I could really imagine a real person talking like that. The father was really smart. He survived by being smart. Of course there was a whole lot of luck involved. But he was first resourceful and strong, pysically and mentally. I found all of his little ‘survival techniques’ very interesting.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. This is not just ‘another’ Holocaust story (which I kinda thought at the beginning). It’s not. It shows things from different views. It’s detailed but not graphically violent. It’s simple but it really strikes you all on the right spots. It’s personal, it’s heartbreaking, and but not overly melancholy. The book is a masterpiece. Nuff said.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Pages: 296
Publication year: 1986 (part I: My Father Bleeds History), 1991 (part II: And Here My Troubles Began)

Awards
1992 Pulitzer Prize, Special Awards and Citations – Letters
1992 Eisner Award Best Graphic Album: Reprint (Maus II)
1992 Harvey Award – Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work (Maus II)

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The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot

mee — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:38:01 +0000

The Tale of One Bad Rat tells a story about Helen, a shy young girl who runs away from home under the shadow of childhood sexual abuse. Following Beatrix Potter, Helen goes through her own journey from the city to countryside, with rat as her friend.

I haven’t read any of Beatrix Potter books, only watched the movie with Renee Zellweger titled Miss Potter. To be honest, I’ve never heard of Peter Rabbit before until that movie. It wasn’t just in my childhood zone somehow. I like the illustrations from what I saw in the movie.

On the other hand, this is probably the first serious Western graphic novel that I read. Reading around fellow bloggers, I knew that a lot of people just started reading manga. For me, I grew up with manga. I read manga constantly since primary school up to high school. I didn’t read any Western graphic novels. I did read some comics, like Asterix, Lucky Luke, Smurf, Tintin, etc. Anyway, comparing the style between Western and Japanese comic, I’d say the biggest difference is the sense of motion. In manga, there are always excessive lines showing the movement of the characters, while here the pictures are… static. Not that it’s a bad thing, it feels very clean.

I applause Bryan Talbot for bringing such a difficult issue into a graphic novel. It works very well too in my opinion. The expressions of the characters are very real down to the pain. I like how the main character could face up her abuser in the end and had a closure. I was kinda worried for a while that she was just gonna drift along and suffer forever.

I read that the book is used as a resource in schools and child abuse centres in several countries. So Talbot is definitely successful in creating this graphic novel. He said,

“This has been the most worthwhile book that I have been involved with and the best- not to mention the hardest- comics work that I’ve ever done.”

“The more child abuse is discussed in society or fiction in whatever medium, the more likely it is that the victims will realise that it is something that happens all the time, that they can speak out, be believed, and get it stopped.”

Rating: 4 out of 5
Pages: 136
Publication year: 1995

Awards:
1996 Eisner Award for best Graphic Album Reprint
1999 Haxtur Award for Best Long Comic Strip