Joseph Wan

Searching for Self-Identity in the USA

Through a casual and funny story-telling graphic novel, Yang explores many hardships that Asian Americans face in the United States today. Amongst those are identity crisis, stereotypes, and microaggressions.

  • This refers to a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society. In American Born Chinese, Jin experiences this upon moving to a new, non-diverse town.

  • a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In American Born Chinese, Jin’s new town has a lot of stereotypes about Asians.

  • indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a minority group.

The Monkey King explains to Jin that he should accept himself for who he is.

Book Summary

In American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by author Gene Luen Yang, three seemingly unrelated storylines meld together to create a thrilling masterpiece about Asian American identity.

The first storyline involves the powerful Monkey King, a character from many traditional Chinese fables. After being discriminated against by all the other leaders due to being a monkey, he goes on a rampage and vows to dominate the world. After many complaints against him, Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the creator of the world, humbles the Monkey King by burying him under a mound of rocks.

The second storyline involves middle school student Jin Wang, who has recently moved from San Francisco Chinatown to a small suburb. His new location only has one other Asian student, and his entire school has many piercing stereotypes about Asian Americans. When another new student, Wei-Chen, is introduced to Jin’s life mid-schoolyear, Jin becomes best friends with him. Jin develops a crush on Amelia, a white girl. After he goes on a date with her, her friends tell Jin to stay away, due to him being of a different race. This throws Jin into an identity crisis, and he imagines himself becoming a white boy, Danny.

The third storyline involves Jin’s new identity, Danny. Trying again to fit into a new school, he is a great athlete, and has made some new friends. However, his mysterious cousin Chin-Kee, an embodiment of Asian stereotypes, visits him every now and then, and embarrasses Danny in front of everyone. Danny is made fun of because of Chin-Kee, and attempts to take it out on his cousin.

After being defeated by Chin-Kee, the three storylines are brought together. Jin returns to his true body, and Chin-Kee is revealed to be the Monkey King, now an emissary of Tze-Yo-Tzuh. Wei-Chen is revealed to be the Monkey King’s son, sent to Earth to fulfill a mission. The story ends with Jin reuniting with Wei-Chen at a restaurant.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Asians have come a long way since they first came to America more than a century ago. At first, they were low-skilled and low-wage laborers (Pew Research Center, 2012); now Asian Americans hold a ton of jobs in the STEM and business fields, amongst others (USAFacts, 2023). However, a lot of Asian Americans have struggled with their identity, as sometimes they aren’t fully accepted as “American”; at the same time, they aren’t exactly solely belonging to the country of their ethnicity. Although more and more progress is being made involving the acceptance of Asian Americans into American society, the search for true identity still continues. I will explore the model minority myth, the “model minority” being a title that has now been bestowed upon Asian Americans. From the model minority myth come many stereotypes and microaggressions, much like the ones found in American Born Chinese. I will provide some examples of such stereotypes/microaggressions, and explain why they are so harmful to everyone involved. Lastly, this will all be brought together with an example of someone who has found their true identity in the United States despite being an Asian American who has faced a lot of challenges.


THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH

The idea of a “model minority” points to a minority group of people that is expected to have greater success than others. True to the label, they are also often seen as role models for other groups, and that in turn places a lot of pressure on the original model group. The concept is rooted in white supremacy, and with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as Asian Americans began to ascend the socioeconomic ladder, “model minority” began to refer to Asian Americans (Wallace, 2021). It created this stereotype that Asian Americans are always supposed to be really high-achieving, and it bleeds into the modern day world as a lot of Asian American students are expected to perform super well in school.

  • involves a minority group that is viewed as having greater success than others

  • sociological concept- staying true to one’s culture

  • blending into the culture of the country one immigrated to or is living in (not one’s culture of origin)

This image here illustrates the history of Asians following their joining into the American culture. Two key concepts are illustrated here, the model minority myth, as well as how hard it is for Asian Americans to fit in (choosing between cultural authenticity and assimilation). As you can see, the three pictures represent three different scenarios, and the Asian woman that stands in the same position in each of them appears to be thinking about her true role in society.

STEREOTYPES

As previously mentioned, out of the “model minority” label, a lot of stereotypes were birthed about Asian Americans. Mainstream media does a terrible job of perpetuating these stereotypes, as oftentimes only the most “well-known” or “obvious” ones are displayed: ones that are not representative of the diversity that exists within the Asian American community at all (Mok, 1998). This can affect, and is a cause of, many Asian Americans struggling to find their exact identity (Mok, 1998). Kim & Yeh (2002) listed many of the stereotypes that Asian Americans face; on the educational front, they are often classified as “geniuses”, “nerdy”, and “math-loving”. On the personality front, they are often viewed as submissive, quiet, and even racist- sticking to their own groups (Kim & Yeh, 2002). However, this type of labeling and racial discrimination leads to even more antisocial actions from Asian Americans, leading to a harmful cycle that goes around and around (Park et al., 2013). Stereotypes are also shown to be extremely detrimental socially and psychologically towards Asian American students; while Asian Americans tend to do better academically than Caucasians, they also reported more depression, antisocial behaviors, and experienced more social problems (Lorenzo et al., 2000).


In addition, Lee (1995) found that Asian Americans don’t even necessarily unite together. In Lee’s study, it was found that Korean Americans distanced themselves from South Asian Americans because they did not want to be seen as poor (Lee, 1995); this is further evidence that stereotypes have little to no benefit to Asian Americans trying to find their identity, and to society as a whole. It makes sense then, that non-Asians using the stereotype that all Asians look the same will only make the division within the Asian American community wider: another reason why stereotypes are harmful. It goes without saying that all cultures are unique, and should be recognized as such.

<— More recently, a new stereotype arose that challenged the search for identity amongst Asian Americans. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with COVID having originated in Wuhan, China, many non-Asian Americans began to put the blame on everyone who appeared Asian, including those who were born in the United States, or who had not traveled outside of the US in a long period of time. While this is not directly a cause of the model minority myth, because of the differences placed on Asians, it was very easy for the panicked non-Asian Americans to start this newfound hatred: and it didn’t end there. The already existing stereotype that all Asians look alike also reared it’s ugly head; not only were Chinese-Americans terrorized for their assumed involvement in COVID, ALL Asians were targeted.

MICROAGGRESSIONS

The cycle continues. From the model minority myth, many stereotypes about Asian Americans were created. And from these stereotypes, we have microaggressions. The key difference between discriminating using stereotypes and the usage of microaggressions is that microaggressions are often unintentional. Nowadays, people have built up such a great collection of assumptions about Asian Americans that they often show their biases through everyday conversations. For example, Sue et al. (2007) identified eight major microaggressions that are directed towards Asian Americans, some of which include; being an alien in your own land, the implication of intelligence, Asian women “exoticism”, and invalidation of ethnic differences (the common “all Asians are the same” stereotype, being used in a blissfully ignorant manner).

In the above image, a person is shown standing in the middle of a whirlwind of phrases. As you can see, it is indeterminable whether the contents of the phrases are bad or good; they are simply a plethora of unidentified scribbles. This very well represents an Asian American living in the United States, searching for their identity but being bombarded on all sides with assumptions about their culture: oftentimes, in the form of microaggressions. The people who utter such microaggressions usually don’t even realize the dissension they are causing.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

So, all these consequences that were a result of the model minority myth: they were all present in Gene Yang’s graphic novel. In American Born Chinese, the people in Jin’s new town had already adopted all these stereotypes about Asian people, and thus from the very beginning of Jin’s life there, his teachers were using microaggressions (pronouncing his name incorrectly, assuming he moved from China, etc.). His classmates demonstrated the usage of both harmful stereotypes and microaggressions; because Jin is Asian, they naturally assumed that he ate dogs and cats. Because Jin is Asian, Amelia’s friends advised him to stay away from her. Despite their good intentions to “protect” Amelia, this microaggression is ultimately what pushed Jin over the edge. He was not accepted as an American, but he was also not completely Chinese.

Jin returns to his old self, the completion of his journey of self-discovery.

With my fifth and final media object, I present the story of Canwen Xu, an Asian American woman who is presently a PhD student at University of California: San Diego. Growing up, Xu faced many of the same stereotypes and microaggressions that Jin Wang of American Born Chinese did. She was naturally assumed to be good at math. She was constantly asked the question “Where are you from?” . Much like Jin, Xu faced an identity crisis. At first, she left her Asian identity behind; she found that the more “American” she became, the more popular she became. However, she also felt like she was losing a part of herself. In the video, Xu is just 18 years old; but she explains that she was able to become proud of her identity: “a little bit American, a little bit Chinese, and a whole lot of both” (Xu, 2016).

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

All in all, the topics I described here in this article all tie together to describe factors that affect Asian Americans finding their identity in the United States. From the model minority myth, harmful stereotypes and microaggressions were created. These stereotypes and microaggressions that are used daily by people are exactly the reasons why people like Canwen Xu and Gene Yang’s Jin Wang have such a hard time growing up. This exhibit was created not only to expose the reader to such obstacles in society, but also in hopes that the reader will self-examine, and figure out ways they can help to make life better for everyone. At the end of the day, it is not just about Asian Americans; it’s about the entire world.

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