Review: American Born Chinese and Shortcomings

This afternoon, I read both Gene Yang's "American Born Chinese" and Adrian Tomine's "Shortcomings". This, of course is a doubleheader of Asian-American experience inspired graphic novels, and the feeling of reading these two right after each other is the same feeling one might get by watching two Asian-American films in a row. For the most part, the two graphic novels deal with the same issue: what it means to be Asian American, and how that affects their ability to be in a relationship.

Gene Yang's American Born Chinese is told through the viewpoints of three characters: the first being the Monkey King, a traditional Chinese hero, the second being Jin Wang, a Chinese American boy who grows up in a primarily white-dominated neighborhood, with his only friend being another boy from Taiwan.
The third story centers on that of a Caucasian teenager named Danny as his Chinese cousin destroys his life and reputation at school. This third story segment involving the Chinese cousin named "Chin-kee" was the hardest for me to read through; this is partially on account of the Chin-Kee's swapping of the "R"s and "L"s in the English, along with his being a highly stylized version of a 1930s era Chinaman, with buckteeth and cue.

Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings centers on Ben Tanaka, a Japanese-American and his relationships with people. Ben Tanaka is not a likable character; he's a bitter, angry Asian male, who has a troubled relationship with his Japanese girlfriend, and his only friend in the world seems to be a Korean lesbian grad student named Alice Kim. Set in Berkeley, the backgrounds of the Bay Area are clearly seen such as the defunct University Theater, and a sign for the Durant Food Court. While beautifully drawn and inked, the character of Ben is impossible to like, and as a result, one reads through the book as merely an observer, never feeling any emotional attachment.

Of the two, Gene Yang's American Born Chinese is the easier to read of the two; the story is a visual allegory, while Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings feels more like an biographical dissection of the topic, leading to disappointment and dissatisfaction befitting the title; I expected more from Tomine, but what I received was far less.

Shortcomings: 2/5

American Born Chinese: 4/5