Books and Boba Folgen

To finish up APAHM, we're highlighting another one of our fellow Asian American podcasts from the Potluck Podcast Collective. This time we're dropping an episode of our fellow #PotluckPod QUARANTINED COMICS, a podcast where hosts Raman and Ryan discuss, debate, and nerd out on some of the comic's greatest, latest, and strangest works, about Gene Luen Yang's seminal graphic novel, AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, now a television series on Disney+. ---So with Asian American Heritage Month, we decided that G should be for Gene Luen Yang ...mostly as an excuse to read AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, Yang's Eisner Award-winning, seminal graphic novel soon to be released as a Disney+ streaming show with a bevvy of Oscar winners. American Born Chinese is Gene Luen Yang's was first released in 2006 - written and illustrated by Yang, and also colored by cartoonist Lark Pien. American Born Chinese consists of three seemingly disparate tales...First, the legendary Chinese Monkey King from the classic 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. However, blink and you might miss it, but Yang replaces the Buddha with a Christian influenced deity.The second storyline is the all-too-familiar Asian American coming of age story of a young American Born Chinese man Jin Wang, who befriends a new arrival from Taiwan, Wei Chen. As with any story of teen drama, romance is afoot with Jin's American crush Amelia Harris. And the third story depicts an American TV sitcom with All American boy Danny and his cousin visting from Chin-kee, who if you couldn't tell from the name alone, is meant to be an amalgam of racist stereotype, from the outlandish costume, heavy accent, buck teeth, and yes, predilection for putting pee pee in your coke. Eventually these three tales become come together into a poignant lesson of culture and self acceptance. ---*Support the podcast by purchasing books at our bookshop or by buying Books & Boba merch at our Bonfire store*Follow our hosts:Reera Yoo (@reeraboo)Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh)Follow us:FacebookTwitterGoodreads GroupThis podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast CollectiveMentioned in this episode:Imagine what our democracy could be in this new hit history podcast from More Equitable Democracy and Larj MediaAmerican Democracy sucks right now! More specifically, the United States' electoral system is outdated and needs reform to better represent its diverse population. George Cheung and Colin Cole from More Equitable Democracy probe what the U.S. can learn from Northern Ireland's adoption of proportional representation to overcome political divisions and achieve fairer representation. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!Listen to The Future of our Former Democracy now!