Gene Luen Yang explains how Chinese mythology and the superhero genre are similar in his show American Born Chinese. Disney has heavily expanded their output of more diverse storytelling, especially in the Asian and Pacific Islander market. Some of their notable hits include Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by American-born Chinese producer Destin Daniel Cretton, and the animated comedy Turning Red, which depicts similar culture clashes, and the Thai-inspired television series Amphibia. Disney continues to expand on representation with the American Born Chinese, which shows a coming-of-age story turned on its head with the integration of Chinese mythology.
While speaking with Ben Wang, who portrays the lead character, found doing the series to be easy for him because "almost every single thing that I read was something that I've lived one to one." The crew was also excited at the prospect of adapting characters from Journey to the West, such as Sun Wukong, and were allowed to expand on the original graphic novel's story with them. Read Yang's quote below:
On a visceral level, I'm a superhero fan. At the heart of the superhero genre is this blending of the fantastic and the mundane. I think that really reflects the Asian-American experience in particular, and the immigrant child's experience in general. Many of us feel like we live in between two different worlds... In the show, the way that's expressed is with mythology. There really are two worlds in the show... The show is about how they intersect and how that intersection sometimes brings about conflict, the same way that on a more mundane level for immigrant kids, the intersection of our world sometimes brings about conflict.
How American Born Chinese Continues To Expand Asian American Roles In Hollywood
Yang wrote the original graphic novel of American Born Chinese through First Second Books. It follows three septate stories that, while dissimilar at first, slowly begin to merge. The first story centers on the Monkey King from Journey to the West and his extended background. The second story focuses on Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy struggling with fitting into his school and the prejudice he faces. The last story focuses on Danny, an ostensibly generic American boy, and his racist stereotype cousin Chin-Kee. The television adaptation primarily adapts the second story with elements of the first one intertwined to create an original premise.
American Born Chinese focuses on Asian Americans and their struggles. The integration of the Journey to the West plot also introduces more Chinese mythology into the American mainstream. Superheroes from Marvel and DC are regarded as modern myths. Over time, superheroes have caught the public's attention, especially Asian Americans, with characters such as Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, Quake, Katana, and Cassandra Cain.
There is currently no release date set for American Born Chinese, but it is most likely due sometime in 2023. The series is also set to reunite Everything, Everywhere, All at Once co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, which will most likely pull in fans of the movie. The series is already garnering attention with its unusual premise and action-oriented production. With so much hype surrounding the series, Yang hopes that it will continue the trend of integrating Asian culture into the mainstream, and seeing as how Disney+ has become the home for trying more experimental series like this one, it looks like American Born Chinese will continue to give Asians a voice.
Source: EW