Conveying Race And Culture With Visual Storytelling

    Because this is the only graphic novel we will cover in this class, I would like to discuss why I think Gene Luen Yang’s story is best told through a graphic novel, and how it utilizes the features of a graphic novel to enhance its message.

    The subject of cultural heritage and assimilating into American culture is particularly suited to the medium of a graphic novel because of the relevance of visual information. Although race and culture are complex ideas formed by an intersection of language, food, and social customs, in the case of Jin Wang’s story, the conflict is much more centered around his physical characteristics that set him apart from his white American peers. The exclusion that Jin faces is mostly based on stereotypes and assumptions made about him because of the way he looks, not because he is unable to speak english or participate in American culture (31). In a traditional novel, the physical differences between Jin and his peers would be much less obvious, and could become clunky and unnatural to continually bring up in Jin’s internal monologue. Through the medium of a graphic novel however, the physical appearances of the characters are naturally present throughout, which allows the reader to witness the exclusion of Jin in the same way one would witness this in real life. This more realistic experience allows the novel to be more easily related back to instances of bullying the reader may have experienced, witnessed, or been victim to in their own lives.

    The story of the monkey king also heavily relies on visual storytelling to communicate an unfamiliar myth to its audience (aside from Asian or Asian-American readers who have heard it before). Yang includes Chinese characters, clothing, writing, and other culturally significant visuals in order to solidify the identity of the myth as significant in Chinese culture (65, 75). If left to the reader’s imagination as it would be in a traditional novel, this myth could easily take on more westernized visuals in the mind of the reader. The Chinese identity of this story is important to preserve, not only because it is a story from Jin’s culture, or because it later intersects with Jin’s story with Wei-Chen being the monkey king’s son, but because it mirrors Jin Wang’s own journey of self-acceptance. The parallels between Jin Wang and the monkey king are much more poignant because they share the same cultural thread which Jin is rejecting throughout the novel. When the monkey king visits Jin to act as a “signpost to [his] soul”, he is able to do so not only because he has experienced the same inner conflict as Jin, but because he also understands Jin’s cultural identity itself (221). Jin’s willingness to listen to the monkey king’s advice, a figure from a traditional Chinese myth, represents when he begins to accept his own culture again. Without the visual identity of the monkey king myth being directly tied to Chinese cultural and artistic style, the connection with Jin Wang’s story would’ve been much less impactful.