Review Of The Graphic Novel 'American Born Chinese' By Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, and Mao’s Last Dancer, an autobiographical novel written by Li Cunxin, both represent themes that are made memorable through the use of stylistic features. Yang’s use of symbolism and character construction portray the ideas of transformation and cultural identity, respectively, to the audience to make it unforgettable. Along with this, he also uses dialogue to create a humorous edge to otherwise serious topics to effectively communicate his message to the reader. Li too, uses many techniques in his writing in order to make his text memorable. His use of descriptive language intricately describes to the reader the process and work required for his parents to get married. In addition to this, Li uses emotive language to describe the poverty his community experienced and photographs to visually communicate parts of his life. Both writers use different techniques to make their text

In the graphic novel American Born Chinese, Yang uses particular features to make his ideas of transformation, cultural identity and his use of humour with certain issues unforgettable. The use of symbolism is most prominent in the beginning of the novel when Yang uses a transformer toy to represent transformation. This symbolism is used all through the graphic novel and is also a well-known symbol, which makes it so memorable. Yang also uses characterisation to make the idea of cultural identity important amongst the audience. It is clear, for the most part, that Jin Wang and the Monkey King are unhappy with their cultural identity and appearance. We can see from these characters’ facial expressions and interactions with other characters that they are trying to change their cultural identity. When Jin is introduced to his class by his teacher (pp 30),