American Born Chinese caught me a little off guard when I started to read it. I knew it was a graphic novel and that it would have a boy who was Chinese born/living in America, however the first section that I read was about a monkey king. The character and story instantly reminded me of the 2008 movie The Forbidden Kingdom where the money king’s weapon, a stick, falls into the hands of an American teenager who loves kung-fu. As the story moves on the monkey king is betrayed by another character and the boy helps to free the monkey king. Needless to say both Jackie Chan and Jet Li are both in this playing multiple characters each and it was a very fast passed movie.


Though the stories differ other then the Monkey King and his amazing fighting styles I feel as though I would probably match parts of the movie together with teaching the graphic novel in a classroom being very careful since the movie is rated PG13. Both stories are about a boy trying to fit in with his soundings or what he perceives to be his soundings. If fact the movies is almost a complete backwards comparison to the graphic novel and I feel the students would be able to pick up more on the need to be yourself in any circumstance.

Since the graphic novel is such a quick read, at least for myself, it would be something I would defiantly do in class. I would have the students read each section and write their feelings, thoughts and opinions about each part the entire way through. At the end I would have them gather into groups and see what each other though and then separate again and write one more time about overall feelings towards the book.

Also another move I thought about was Coming to America which is on about every weekend somewhere on cable.