SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA – As a young man, Bay Area graphic novelist Jin Luwen Yang didn’t always embrace his Chinese heritage. But as he got older, it gave him a sense of purpose, like a superpower exploring his graphic novel and new Disney+ series, “American Born Chinese.”
demonstrates Yang as he sits at a picnic table in a tree-lined park near his office in Sunnyvale, California.
The 43-year-old tells us that he loves every Disney and Marvel cartoon character, “except for one, except for Shang-Chi.”
video: “American Born Chinese” brings to life the story of The Monkey King
Yang was born into a Chinese family in the San Jose area. When he was young, he grew up hearing tales of Chinese myths and legends from his parents.
But as he got older, he said, “I went through a period of time where I was embarrassed and ashamed of my cultural heritage. I was even ashamed of the way I looked.”
Once in college, he began to notice how racial stereotypes of Chinese and other Asian races permeated television and the media in general, and how this was related to the shame he felt when he was younger.
A few years later he wrote, “American Born Chinese,” a graphic novel that would become the basis for the Disney+ series, which is now streaming.
“I think the essence of the book and the show are the same,” he said. “It’s about a kid who struggles with self-acceptance. He has a piece of him that he’s very embarrassed about. The story is about how he eventually learns how to accept that piece and even be proud of it.”
Yang created the series with “Bob’s Burgers” executive producer Kelvin Yu, and stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Hui Quan, Daniel Wu, Ben Wang, Yu Yanyan, Chen Han, Sydney Taylor, and Jimmy Liu.
Now, Yang is bursting with pride over his ethnicity and the importance of creating the series.
“For you to finally be included in American stories is something that affirms,” he said. “You know, there’s something that says, ‘You’re no longer an alien. You’re actually a part of this.'”
“Our stories deserve to be on the page and they deserve to be on the screen,” he adds.
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