Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation

This week was all about Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation and how comics utilize the function of a stereotype and may even be dependent on them.  In class we studied how often stereotypes are used in comics and other mediums, and in my mind often this is to get a character or message across to the reader most clearly and effectively,  despite the opposing view points that were expressed during the class discussion.  These stereotypes had to have come from some where to begin with and working with people at my job, everyday I see these generalizations or more often than not true.  I have thought about the fact that because my pre-existing knowledge of these stereotypes I may be subconsciously looking for them to be true, but I don't think this is the case as I'm not really biased towards one way or the other so why would I bend what I'm seeing to be a specific way.  Anyways that being said I did read a comic for this week! One that I quite enjoyed in fact, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

Yang has crafted a brilliant graphic novel that relies heavily upon a complex narrative that consists of 3 separate and compelling stories that all run parallel and eventually tie together by the end of the book.  Each one has similar themes of self-awareness and how the characters look at themselves to form their own identities.  I have some what of a bias towards anything that includes the story of the Monkey King, which has been used in countless things through out history, from the animations of "Journey to the West", to things a little more subtle but still obvious like Akira Toriyama's Dragonball(One of my favorite manga of all time by the way).  So Yang's graphic novel instantly had me hooked when I saw his use of the Monkey King's story as a sort of parallel story to the main protagonist Jin Wang.

Jing Wang's story is still compelling, it's interesting how Yang is able to weave all the little subtle issues a young chinese person would have assimilating into American culture.  He does this in a light hearted way such as when the teacher mispronounces his name and then he corrects and then she corrects.  Just this little scene it was easy to identify with the situation because I've watched this exact occurrence happen a ton of times to my friend Rani growing up because of his different ethnic background.

Finally we come to the all-american Danny who's fed up with his super blatant chinese stereotype of a cousin Chin-Kee.  I think Chin-Kee was a super funny character and kind of shows the reader that the overly ridiculous chinese stereotype is a huge contrast to the much more realistic portrayal of an actual person of asian decent living in America.  It's interesting to find that Danny is actually what has become of Jing as he tries to deny his Chinese heritage to avoid any more harassment.  Here is where the reader should have a recollection of the foreshadowing that Yang uses in the beginning of the novel where Jing wants to become a “Transformer” and all he has to do is sell his soul; This is a spectacular use of foreshadowing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I'm glad I read it, I didn't quite care for the ending as much as I had hoped, because I just wanted to keep reading, but it didn't ruin the experience for me.  Next week is manga! Definitely my favorite form of comics!