It didn't matter what language they spoke at home. It didn't matter what kind of food they ate at home. It didn't really matter where their parents were from. And they were mostly - like, I heard a lot from not necessarily Asian American readers but from the children of immigrants. I was incredibly surprised and also encouraged by the amount of support that book got from librarians and from teachers and from booksellers, of course, but really from these readers. YANG: I was kind of shocked by the reaction. ZOMORODI: That book ended up becoming "American Born Chinese," a graphic novel that came out in 2006 and quickly became a bestseller and the first graphic novel to ever become a finalist for the National Book Award. It was almost like I was working something out, you know? YANG: He really is all of these negative Chinese and Chinese American stereotypes that I had grown up with, and drawing that character on the page felt like an exorcism to me. So over the next six years or so, Gene started to work on a book with that character in mind. ZOMORODI: But at that moment, seeing it again as an adult, Gene felt like that character was speaking to him. And I wondered if my second-grade self understood that that joke was aimed at people who look like me. Any Asian American who grew up in the '80s and probably early '90s remembers that joke, but I obviously thought it was funny enough to put in my notebook. ZOMORODI: He didn't remember doing the drawing, but he did remember the joke. And then the blond character is spitting out his Coke. And the slant-eyed, buck-toothed character is saying, me Chinese. There's this cartoon in there, and on this cartoon there's a slant-eyed, buck-toothed character, and then there's this other blond character. YANG: And I found this notebook that I had kept when I was in second and third grade. ![]() ZOMORODI: So anyway, all those years ago, Gene was at his parents' house, going through old letters and drawings. YANG: They didn't find it impressive at all. And then I realized really quickly that it was just not impressive. YANG: I would tell my classes on the first day of every semester that I was also a comic book creator because I was trying to impress them. ![]() About 25 years ago, he was a high school teacher, and his hobby was writing comic books. GENE LUEN YANG: So right before I got married, I went back to my parents' house, and I cleaned out my old childhood bedroom.
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