One of the most interesting things about graphic novels as a medium is how the form of the comic can be manipulated in order to emphasize various aspects of the story. Gene Luen Yang does this a number of times in American Born Chinese, by breaking through panel borders, and changing the angle of panel borders in order to emphasize actions and story.
One way that Yang uses this technique is in the chapters of Danny and Chin-Kee’s storyline to caption the laugh track of a sitcom. Although a similar font with bright yellow letters is used as onomatopoeia in the Jin and Monkey King stories as well, (see the second panel of 66 and the panel on 102 for some examples), the way that the laughter extends below the bottom edge of the panel borders distinguishes the laughter as not being diegetic. This text even grows in size when the action and emotion are heightened, and Danny feels at his lowest and most vulnerable (211 - 212), indicating that the text not only distinguishes the Chin-Kee story from the others in the book, but also reflects Danny’s anxieties about how the world sees him.
Yang also uses panel borders to depict the Monkey King’s hubris. For example, after he masters all 12 disciplines of Kung-Fu, he emerges from his cave, announcing that he has ”transcended [his] former title” (60, panel 1). Here the Monkey King, or “The Great Sage” extends outside of the panel borders, reflecting how his ego has grown beyond the bounds of what is acceptable. Much later, towards the end of the book, there is a similar panel, where the Monkey Kings extends beyond the panel boundaries (215, panel 1). However, in this case the panel is much smaller than the prior instance, and instead of signifying his hubris, it is representative of how the Monkey King has fully mastered and accepted himself and his place.
In one of my favorite examples of playing with the panels, the Monkey King visits the end of all that is and actually shatters the panel as he flies through the boundaries of reality and as he returns back from the five pillars of gold (72-76). Appropriately the scene at the pillars is borderless, which is a really interesting instance of the visuals mirroring and enhancing the events in the story.
There are a few more instances of using panel boundaries in the book, such as on the 5th panel of 229, where we see Wei-Chen’s monkey form through a sketched out black-and-white lens, as if he is remembering his former more innocent self. In general I think that looking at how an author uses the boundaries of the comic, and plays with the medium in general in order to express messages and themes in the work are one of the most interesting things about graphic novels, and part of what gives them the potential to tell so many varied stories. In American Born Chinese, it allows Gene Luen Yang to build deeper characterizations and utilize the form of the graphic novel to enhance the story.
Watching the panels change shape and explore boundaries was one of my favorite parts of reading this graphic novel. So much emotion and emphasis can be shown through the way the drawings are presented and like mentioned above, it often signifies the big and important moments without having to explicitly state it. The story with Chin-Kee is highly dramatized by the use of the yellow action words at the bottom of the panel. I agree that this also emphasizes the way that Danny sees his cousin rather than how he really looks and acts. I enjoyed the panels of the action scenes where instead of the normal box panels, they changed into long diagonal ones that match the content of the scene. This happens when the monkey king gets exiled (82-83) and when Chin-Kee fights Danny (207-211). I think it makes it even more fun to read and shows a distinction from the standard boxes that are shown the majority of the time.
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