Written by Bo Sun, with edits by deborah lau-yu
CURATED BY THE FÊTE CHINOISE EDITORIAL TEAM
Images from Instagram, Twitter & Disney+

Another live-action Asian-inspired series is coming to Disney Plus next year. American Born Chinese is based on a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang and tells the story of Jin Wang, an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. When he meets a new student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.

The series already carries some big expectations with the involvement of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton and writer & executive producer Kelvin Yu. It is a genre-hopping action-comedy that explores issues of identity, culture and family – and fits right into the growing dialogue of increased variety within films starring Asian-American stars.

Michelle Yeoh, the international movie star who portrayed martial arts legend Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will star as the lead character in American Born Chinese. She was recently honoured in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival with the Groundbreaker Award, presented by Bulgari. She was then also honoured in Hollywood by Elle among other esteemed actors, including Anne Hathaway at Elle's 2022 Women in Hollywood. As a follow-up to our post about Yeoh's involvement with the series, our editorial team decided to take a closer look at the original graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang.

In the graphic novel, Jin Wang and his family move to a new neighbourhood, where he suddenly discovers that he is the only Chinese-American student at his school. Athletes and bullies constantly make fun of him, and he has practically no friends. This long-awaited and touching story about growing up Asian American—a fairy tale for every child born into a body and a life they wish they had escaped.

The story is filtered through the lens of many familiar icons: the beloved Monkey King, a Chinese figure who is known to children around the world, and Chin-Kee, a racist stereotype who represents Jin's hopes and humiliations. The author sometimes slips into Chinese ideograms or mythology, but the sentiments he depicts do not need to be translated or explained.

It is a coming-of-age novel about three very different people who are struggling with identity and self worth. It's a book that can be enjoyed by all readers, especially those who often feel conflicted about their sense of individuality in the face of community expectations.

Many people believe that Asians have an easier time in the United States than other minority groups, especially African Americans, whose struggles to become adults have been chronicled for decades by writers such as Walter Dean Myers, Jacqueline Woodson and Sharon G. Flake. But Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese presents a more complicated reality about what it means to be Chinese in California. And this is particularly relatable to the Asian community in Canada, where immigration is where many family stories and journeys of cultural and self identity begin.

American Born Chinese, the graphic novel and live-action series, can be an effective way to reach many types of readers and audiences—regardless of their age or gender. This popularity is due in large part to its ability to tackle tough social issues like anti-Asian hate in a way that is accessible to everyone.

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