Thoughts on: American Born Chinese

First of all, I had a blast reading “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang. I think that Yang touches on several incredibly important and relevant subject that we as teachers are going to deal with. Students, whether in elementary, middle, high school, or college are constantly re-evaluating themselves and trying to figure out who they are. I am 23 years old, and I am still no closer to figuring out who I am than I was as a five year old asking my mom if I could be an astronaut, a ballerina, a pianist, and a singer or if she could turn my older sister and I into twins. Ironically, the one thing I never wanted to be while I was growing up was a teacher, but that’s beside the point. If there is one thing I have learned this year—thanks to Dr. Galioto’s Psychoanalytic approach to 19th century American Literature—it is that identity is an endlessly complicated idea. We can have as many theoretical approaches to discovering how each person develops their own identity as we want, but there will never be one simple equation that tells us exactly how we form our identity. In the novel, Jin Wang has to grapple with the idea of becoming his true self—which firsts requires him figuring out who that true self is. Is he just the boy that his classmates see? No. There is clearly so much more to him than what others see—especially since most can’t see past the label of FOB (fresh of the boat) even though he was born in America. Is he simply whoever he believes himself to be? No, if that were true, he would only be “Danny”. So then who is Jin Wang? I think that identity is a learning and developing process. The things we experience now are all a part of who we become, but they aren’t the only part. And while we clearly make decisions about who we are and who we become, that isn’t the only part either.

Identity is obviously not the only, or even main focus in the novel. Something that we will all have to deal with as teachers is stereotypes that we have, and that other students have. It would be so easy for me to write this post by condemning American youth for not being tolerant, but where are they getting this attitude? At least in part by emulating the adults that they are around. I feel like such a bad “teacher in training” for saying this, but I am constantly having to check my own feelings and thoughts because, whether based on race, gender, sexuality, I know that I make assumptions about people. Often times I am not even aware of what my silent actions say about what I am feeling. Students are incredibly in tune with subtle messages that we send, and as much as much as we like to think that as long as we are not outright in our prejudices, assumptions, (the name doesn’t matter much), kids pick up on these things. I like what John Gaughan says in his article “Cultural Reflections: Critical Teaching and Learning in the English Classroom.” He writes, “I think most of the classroom communities I’ve worked in since have been healthy places, but had to battle my own prejudices and experiences to construct those environments" (13). In “American Born Chinese,” Jin’s teacher doesn’t even try to get his name right. It may be a gross exaggeration—and I hope it is—but what kind of message does that send to the child and to the other students? That this one kid isn’t important? That if the teacher isn’t even bothering with him, why should they? Alright, I’m done preaching. I appreciated Gaughan’s honesty about how he developed as a teacher, and his descriptions of the various teachers at the beginning were very interesting.

The format of “American Born Chinese” is a breath of fresh air, if you will forgive the cliché. I seriously laughed at such a format when I first bought the book. Twenty minutes into it, I was so engrossed that I forgot to start dinner and had to convince my husband to take me out to eat. I think this book would be a great companion to books about identity (maybe with “The Importance of Being Earnest”—I know, I know, a weird combination if you think about it only from the prejudice stand point, but the idea of identity being so created and confusing is pretty similar). Or even Twain’s “Pudd’nhead Wilson” which explores the ideas of race, stereotypes, and identity. ("Pudd'nhead Wilson" is seriously my new favorite book! Um, I haven’t finished it yet, so don’t hold me to that!) In any case, I think "American Born Chinese" would be a fun book to teach. Its a great jumping off point for a variety of topics, and I think a lot of students would really enjoy it.