Adrienne Hurst and Dan Farrell andListen and follow ‘The Daily’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherAlmost everyone who reads “American Born Chinese,” Gene Luen Yang’s groundbreaking graphic novel, is a little afraid of Chin-Kee.
The book is a classic of young-adult literature, threading together stories of Asian American boyhood with a revered Ming dynasty novel.
Chin-Kee’s role in it is a small one, but he is the bomb at the book’s heart.
He makes the old schoolyard “me Chinese” rhymes and begins sentences with “Confucius say …” He sings “She Bangs,” in a library, in the style of the “American Idol” contestant William Hung.
A laugh track runs in a ribbon under each scene, a brutal little receipt: “HA HA HA HA HA.”So when news arrived, in 2021, that “American Born Chinese” would be adapted as a live-action Disney+ streaming series, the first reaction from some readers was, more or less, “Oh, no.”
Persons:
Adrienne Hurst, Dan Farrell, Gene Luen, Chin, Kee, “ Confucius, Bangs, ”, William Hung
Organizations:
Spotify, Idol