Greetings from Gene Yang!

The Book Slam is excited to share greetings from another of our authors, Gene Luen Yang! Here's what he said:

Hello Teens in Queens,

Thank you so much for choosing to read American Born Chinese! It's an honor. I hope the book will lead to some fruitful discussions. Cartoons are often dismissed as art for children, but they can be very powerful tools for communication. They can pack a punch that's difficult to replicate in other media -- just take a look at the Muslim cartoon controversy that's been going on in Denmark for well over a year.

In American Born Chinese, I address how cartoons have been used to stereotype Chinese- and Asian-Americans through my character Cousin Chin-Kee. To fully understand him, you have to know a little something about the history of stereotypes in comics, and particularly Asian stereotypes. A great place to start is Dr. K's analysis of Chop Chop, one of Cousin Chin-Kee's precursors and a DC Comics hero who's still around:

http://doctor-k100.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-job-keeping-up-with-chop-chop.html

Hope that helps, and happy reading!

Gene

Thanks, Gene!