Artwork: Ella Sun
In spring 2023, Disney+ announced the release of American Born Chinese, a young adult show featuring Chinese-American characters with a twist of fantasy action. I finished the first season three days after its premiere, and I was incredibly impressed. First of all, all the actors did phenomenal jobs in inhabiting their characters and telling the overall story. The jokes were great, the storylines were captivating, and overall it had the qualities of a well-produced Disney show. By the time I finished, I was already searching for a season two.
For those of you who haven’t watched yet, the first season of American Born Chinese is an 8-episode fantasy action comedy centered around Jin Wang, the Chinese-American protagonist. He meets Wei-Chen, a new student who“recently moved from China,” who actually turns out to be the son of the mythical Monkey King. They embark on an adventure together to “save the heavens,” and along the way, many other characters and side-plots are introduced. The series addresses race, family values, friendship, youthhood (and adulthood), hardship, and sacrifice.
It was clear that Disney and executive producer Kelvin Yu (and his entire team) put race and the “ABC” experience at the core of this show. From the title to the plot lines (Jin feeling like he doesn’t belong in his community , his dad facing a bamboo ceiling in his job, and dealing with racist jokes and a strong-willed Asian affinity group at Jin’s school affinity group), Yu confronted race incredibly head-on. I am proud that this show, along with other recent hits like Crazy Rich Asians, Everything, Everywhere All at Once, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings have finally given some national and international stage time to English-speaking Asians.
As an American-Born Chinese high schooler, I was delighted to “see myself” in the characters. Many of the scenes and stories had me saying to myself, “Yeah, I feel that,” like Jin’s inability to relate to his White friends, his tendency to get overlooked and brushed to the side, and, of course, the racist jokes.
But throughout the show, I started realizing that my feelings bordered more on sympathy towards the experiences of Jin and Wei-Chen, rather than actually feeling like them. Those two characters played more into my internal perception of Chinese and Chinese-Americans, rather than who I, and many Chinese-Americans, are actually like. Society has conditioned us to expect certain things from Chinese people and Asians, and my differences with the characters highlighted my internal bias.
Though we get to explore the funny, sweet, and youthful energies of Jin and Wei-Chen (the deuteragonist), I still felt uneasy after watching their characters interact with the world around them. They, like so many other Asian American characters throughout history, had been confined into the shy, awkward, nerdy, and naive stereotype of Asian American men as perceived by Hollywood and much of society. There is a conscious effort to make Jin and Wei-Chen cooler, by having Jin have white friends, a girlfriend, and play soccer, and by giving Wei-Chen superpowers. Yet, this all doesn’t change the fact that Jin is shy and unconfident, while Wei-Chen is incredibly naive and simple. Though I understand that Yu wanted to make the characters relatable, if the show’s two main characters are constantly humiliating themselves or the audience is cringing at their personalities, it is not doing our community justice. It’s ironic, as one of the show’s side plots is about Ke Huy Quan’s character constantly being confined to a degrading role just to appease White audiences. It seems that Yu is subconsciously contradicting what he is preaching.
Another issue that brought me discomfort was the almost-comical poaching of Everything, Everywhere all at Once for this TV production. The three most prominent actors from EEAAO, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu, also appear in American-Born Chinese, though with more supporting roles. I understand that EEAAO won seven Oscars, but were there really no other Asian actors that Disney could hire? This is not to downplay the work of these three talented actors, but I don’t think I have ever seen such blatant crew copy/pasting anywhere else.
Despite these critiques, I am nevertheless a huge fan of Yu’s creation. At its most touching moments, the show almost brought me to tears, which is incredibly rare for any production. At its conclusion, I only wanted more. I appreciate the efforts of all parties involved to spread the Chinese-American experience, but as it stands I think the “empowerment” of Chinese-Americans nearly backfires, making us an even bigger out-group. But, hey, change can’t happen overnight, and I think Disney and Yu are both very well-intentioned; let’s see what American Born Chinese, season 2 will bring!