Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. First Second, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0312384487 (Square Fish reprint)
I had a hard time shaking the feeling that I would find this book very offensive if it weren't written by a cultural insider. My "warning alarms" kept sounding at points where racial issues were addressed. The cousin was clearly a caricature, but I would cringe as he acted them out (and not just out of empathy with Danny embarrassment at being associated with him.) I also fear that some "less enlightened" students might use this as a tutorial for new stereotypes to use while ridiculing any Asian students...
I was able to slowly let go of that (possibly because I was struggling to figure out which direction the 3-way story was going), and I found that I really enjoyed reading this format of book. Graphic novels are not available in my media center, so I was surprised at the depth of the complex internal and external conflicts this medium was able to portray. I would be very interested in finding more of these for my library.
The kissing scene was a point of confusion for me. There may be a cultural or Manga-related significance that I just wouldn’t get, but I was able to work out at least a potential theory as to why things happened like they did… I think that following his dismissal by the white culture as they pointed out his fate of being “forever the outsider”, he abruptly tries to run away and return to the only Asian culture he knows. However, due to the emotional (as well as hormonal) turmoil he's just gone through, he makes a rather stupidly impulsive choice which leaves him abandoned by everyone.
I also wonder if the cousin’s role wasn't meant to be a metaphor for Danny’s own disgust with his heritage (that he might see as having left him isolated) and to highlight his total avoidance of anything that seemed Asian, especially if he thought it might cause him to be ridiculed by his "new friends."
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