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Citizen 13660 and American Born Chinese...

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Allison Guenette Topics in US Multicultural Literature ENG 349 6 December 2018 Comparing Literature of First and Second Generation Asian Americans

 nd American Born Chinese in Citizen 13660 a  y Mine Okubo and American Born Chinese b  y Gene Luen Yang Citizen 13660 b represent first and second generation Asian American Literature, respectively, by way of writing style, illustration style, and themes considered by both authors. Okubo and Yang use different writing styles of genres in their books which illustrate generational differences in first and second generation Asian Americans. Okubo in Citizen 13660, uses a brief, objective style which mimics haikus in haiku’s qualities of brevity, account of surroundings, and concernment with seasons. Okubo exhibits qualities of haiku, “The warm summer days brought all kinds of insects besides mosquitoes. The distribution of the screens to all of the families finally kept the pests out of our rooms,” (Okubo 190). This brief statement contains a whole page, objectively states conditions of bugs in the summertime at the camp instead of asserting her own feelings about how awful the bugs were, and she considers aspects of summer the same way a haiku would. Okubo’s demonstration of the haiku reflects first generation writing because it uses traditional Asian writing forms rather than making new ones that are inspired by America.

Like Okubo, Yang uses a traditional Asian form, the myth, but he alters the traditional myth by incorporating Christianity, a religion more American than Asian. Reflecting on the myth, Journey to the West, t he Monkey king sacrifices the disciple, that visits hill under the pile of rocks to which the Monkey king is trapped, to the demons. The disciple declares, “If it is the will of Tze-Yo-Tzuh for me to die for your stubbornness, then I accept,” the same way that Jesus was killed for the Jews refusal to accept him as the son of God (Yang 148). This alteration to the original Journey to the West t o incorporate American religion is a testament to American Born Chinese being second generation Asian American literature because Yang is more willing to consider American culture in his writing than Okubo. Alternative to Okubo, Yang also uses writing styles of the sitcom and the autobiography, both American forms. In the Chin-Kee storyline of American Born Chinese t he laugh tracks evoke a sitcom atmosphere. In the Jin-Wang storyline, Yang reveals inner emotions of Jin-Wang considering identity and relationships with girls “I would lie awake at night analyzing my feelings for her [Amelia], she wasn’t exceptionally beautiful and spoke with a slight lisp,” which lets us in into Jin-Wang’s inner feelings about Amelia, thus demonstrating autobiography. Yang’s use of sitcom and autobiography indicate the influence of American on his writing therefore, the more

 s reflecting on second generation influence of America asserts American Born Chinese a Asian Americans. Where Okubo applies traditional forms in Citizen 13660 s uch as the haiku, Yang alters the traditional form of the myth and uses American forms of the sitcom and autobiography.

Okubo and Yang also differ in illustration style, Okubo employing a more traditional ink landscape style of Asian illustration and Yang exercising cartoon style relying on a younger form illustration in Asia. On page 209 in Citizen 13660, Okubo epitomizes the tradition ink landscape:

similar to the style to painter, Xia Gui of the Song dynasty:

with bold, sketchy ink strokes and an image that spans a lot of space. While Okubo’s style traces to traditional Asian art, Yang’s style ties to modern Asian art: manga. On page 212, Chin-kee’s head pops off, revealing himself as the Monkey King,

Yang embodies the style of manga, with onomatopoeias of “bounce” and “POP” and the use of speak bubbles, “AAAA!” (Yang 212). Yang also exemplifies manga style by simplified versions of characters where Chin-kee’s eyes are only a few lines as opposed

to a more realistic style. For comparison, consider an image from the modern Japanese manga, Bleach Volume 25,

which also uses onomatopoeia, “DOOM” and speech bubbles, “No way!”. In Bleach, characters are draw similar to in American Born Chinese i n their simplicity, where

features, like eyes, are drawn with only a few lines and do not attempt to draw reality (Kubo, Volume 25). Where Okubo imitates traditional ink drawing with her perspective of the landscape and bold strokes, asserting herself to still value tradition Asian art by way of first generation Asian American literature, Yang affirms second generation Asian American literature by his more modern interpretation and in simplicity and use of onomatopoeia and speech bubbles, Yang uses the manga style. Additionally Okubo and Yang vary in topics pondered in their graphic novels. Okubo contemplates allegiance and Yang: identity and acculturation. Okubo unpacks the dilemma of allegiance to America while living in internment camps. On page 68, Okubo states the poor conditions of the camp, how bugs and rats infested their room. This suggests non-allegiance to American because America was providing the evacuees with the suffering in poor conditions. The image on this page suggests otherwise:

The woman lie underneath a comforter which serves to comfort the evacuee. This image is contradictory to the text because instead of providing poor conditions for the evacuees, American provided comfort and protected the evacuees (Okubo 68). The topic of allegiance aligns with the concepts of first generation Asian Americans because they had lived in both Asia and American and when they came to America they were asked to denounce loyalty to any country they are from and declare loyalty to America. This is obviously an issue for many Asian Americans because they spent their whole lives in Asian countries. Rather than struggle between giving up Asian culture for new American culture as Okubo concerns, Yang’s, Jin-Wang grapples altogether with whether he can consider himself Asian or American and acculturation into American culture. On page 44, Jin-Wang chastises Wei-Chen for speaking in Chinese:

Despite Jin-Wang’s words to Wei-Chen which maintain Jin-Wang’s acculturation in the panel of the comic, Jin-Wang always faces away from Wei-Chen, suggesting that Wei-Chen symbolizes China which Jin-Wang turns away from and resists (Yang 44). Yang regards acculturation by Jin-Wang’s refrain from engaging with Wei-Chen revealing Jin-Wang’s fear of multiple identities as Chinese and American, as well as Jin-Wang’s acculturation and adherence to American culture by refraining from speaking in Chinese. Yang’s meditation on identity and acculturation personifies second generation Asian Americans due to striving to figure out whether they are Asian or American since most were born in America with Asian parents as opposed to Okubo, where first generation Asian Americans were once just Asian and hae to transition into American culture. Okubo exemplifies first generation Asian American literature in her emphasis on traditional writing and illustration style and balancing between old Asian culture and new American culture. Yang represents second generation Asian American literature in morphing traditional myth, adopting American writing styles, contemporary Asian illustration, and examining the absorption of into American culture and growing up Asian, but in American culture. The importance of identifying these works as either a reflection of first of second generation Asian American literature manifests in the readers ability to assess transition from Asian to American culture. In Citizen 13660, Okubo is thoroughly affected by Asian culture, whereas in American Born Chinese, Yang begins to espouse American culture as his own. Through these graphic novels,

the reader can begin to understand the lives of immigrants as they undergo progression into a vastly different culture.

Works Cited Gui, Xia. Untitled Landscape. Kubo, Tite. Bleach. Vol. 25, Shueisha, 2006. Okubo, Miné. Citizen 13660. University of Washington Press, 2014. Yang, Gene Luen., and Lark Pien. American Born Chinese. Square Fish, 2008....