One thing I was confused about during the reading was why, on page 188, Jin kisses Suzy after she tells him a very personal story about discrimination. Suzy tells him she has internalized Timmy’s insults, saying, “I realized … deep down inside … I kind of feel like that all the time;” ordinarily I would expect some sort of bonding moment here, maybe one in which Jin shares his own experiences with racism and prejudice (187). I read it as an emotionally fueled impulse decision thanks to the lightning bolts in the bottom right hand corner, because in other places the lightning bolts signaled moments of intense, usually romantic, emotions — we see this on the preceding pages when Jin wants to approach Amelia but Greg intimidates him (187, 178, 182-184).
If the lightning bolts in this chapter symbolize romantic emotions, why does Jin kiss Suzy? He’s stated before that “they avoided each other as much as possible,” and after the kiss that “She’s not [his] type” (31, 191). I don’t buy his reasons that Wei-Chen is not “right for her” or “worthy of her,” mostly because Jin never paid her much mind before this point other than as his friend’s girlfriend (191). His tone with Wei-Chen feels much too accusatory; I think he’s likely projecting his own feelings of unworthiness onto his friend. If he truly thought Wei-Chen was unworthy of her, surely he would have said or thought something on the subject earlier in the novel. The most we have of his reaction to them dating is a single exclamation point in a speech bubble (89).
I think it’s more plausible that this kiss is born of shared experiences. Jin has experienced this sort of racism before: Timmy and a friend called Jin, Wei-Chen, and Suzy racial slurs while they were talking about Jin’s crush on Amelia (96). Having this in common allows for shared ground and shared emotional frustration, and with Jin just having had Greg tell him to leave Amelia alone because “she has to start paying attention to who she hangs out with,” he has a built-up wealth of unexplored tension (179). I think he acted on this built-up tension and frustration and kissed Suzy because, on some level, he thought she would understand where he’s coming from and would sympathize.
During the section you refer to, Jin is filled with strong emotions. I think the lightning bolts represent this more so than romantic feelings. We see them when he is thinking of punching Greg in the face. There is no doubt that Greg intimidates him. However, the fact that the full thunder “krakaboom” (183) explodes and dissipates when he sees Greg makes it appear like the lightning is built up rage and the courage that is brought on by this anger.
ReplyDeleteWith Suzy, he is not angry, but he is still compulsive in his actions which suggests the lightning signifies strong emotions of some sort. I think there is some validity in saying that the kiss is born from shared experience, but I think it is more that he just is not thinking to begin with. He has been not only shut down but effectively prevented from even talking to the girl he likes, and he sees an outlet for frustration in Suzy’s sadness like you said. I do not know if the fact that they have shared racist experiences is a major component though at this moment. The timing just seems off in that aspect. He sees a crying girl, he is filled with pent up emotions, and his hormones fuel the fire. His defensive response to Wei-Chen seems more fitting in this case. If he thought there was some validity in her and him having chemistry, then he likely would not have shouted at Wei-Chen.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that the kiss between Suzy and Jin is confusing and out of the blue. I would also agree that the conversation the boys have when Jin is claiming Wei-Chen isn’t worthy is in fact Jin’s own insecurities rather than true feelings towards Wei-Chen.
ReplyDeleteI think the overall situation, however, has more to do with Jin and Wei-Chen than with Suzy. Jin claims after the kiss that, “Wei-Chen needed to hear what I had to say. It was, after all, the truth” (192). This is after Jin yells at Wei-Chen that he’s not worthy of Suzy and insults him for being an “F.O.B”. I think the kiss was the most dramatic way Jin could separate himself from a friendship or relation with Wei-Chen because Jin clearly wanted to move on and didn’t like his Asian roots or ties. In order to end their friendship, Jin acts impulsively with the kiss but it was effective in what he wanted to do. He was able to completely distance himself from Wei-Chen and Suzy and then that night became Danny, his ideal self. In my opinion, the kiss acted as a catalyst to end Jin and Wei-Chen’s friendship rather than to imply Jin was attracted to Suzy through shared experience.
I absolutely agree that Jin kissed Suzy because of their shared experiences. Throughout the whole book, we see Jin try to squash every reminder that he is different. He changes his hair to be more like Greg in the hopes Amelia will like him (Yang 97), and he shushes Wei-Chen on multiple occasions when he tries to mention something about being Asian-American. When Wei-Chin first meets Jin, Jin snaps, “You’re in America. Speak English” (Yang 37). When Wei-Chin speaks about how crushes are handled in Taiwan, Jin replies, “This isn’t Taiwan, you doof! Stop acting like such an F.O.B.” (Yang 89). When a group of bullies throw slurs the way of Jin, Wei-Chen, and Suzy, the three stand in an embarrassing silence. The instances of Jin trying to distance himself from his Chinese-American identity put him in a position where he never talks about his experiences. He is obviously bothered by how people treat him, and though he has two others who could relate to him, he doesn’t talk about it because that would be acknowledging the Chinese part of him. When Suzy is suddenly so vulnerable with Jin, it seems to come as a complete surprise to him, and it is probably due to this distance he keeps between himself and his identity. To have someone be so open about an experience that he has also been through caused him to make the rash, emotion-fueled, and ultimately bad decision to kiss Suzy. His repressed emotions all flooded out at once to push him to kiss her.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Jessica that Yang is missing an opportunity that could be valuable to Chinese-American girls. To expand on Jordan's point, I would argue that Yang is actually doing more damage to both Chinese-American girls and their experiences and women's rights and progress as a whole. Jordan says this kiss has more to do with Wei-Chen than Suzy, and I think that is absolutely true and a very serious problem in the work. Jin finds peace with his own identity and resolution from the events of the novel by waiting for Wei-Chen at the Chinese restaurant and apologizing (Yang 229-231). Jin never apologizes to Suzy, and her feelings are not discussed at all in the novel. She is nothing more than an accessory to Wei-Chen's and Jin's conflicts, their journeys toward comfort in their identities, and their relationships. An unwanted kiss is sexual assault, and yet we never get any resolution from Suzy. The graphic novel not only fails the Bechdel test, but fails to do even the most basic services to its female characters: allow them the dignity and resolution of an apology. From American Born Chinese, Yang appears to be too caught up in the struggles facing Chinese-American young people in general to remember the additional challenges that come from being a woman.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that the kiss was fueled by frustration and that Jin probably thought it was appropriate in the moment, although afterwards it is apparent that it is anything but. Suzy was crying and the kiss can be seen as a misguided attempt at comfort and sympathy; however, this is not developed further and the kiss is used as a plot device to provoke conflict between Jin and Wei-Chen.
I am slightly disappointed that Suzy did not have a larger role in the narrative. While the author is male, and this story draws heavily from his own experiences. Yang lost the chance to comment on or perhaps advocate for the experiences of Asian-American girls and how their experiences are unique due to the intersection of gender and racial identity, which is his main focus. While Suzy does punch Jin in the face for kissing her, that is the end of her appearance in the novel. We do not really see her perspective as an Asian-American aside from the brief conversation about racism that precipitated the kiss. Suzy confides in Jin that Timmy calls her racial slurs and confesses to Jin that she “feel[s] like that all the time” which leads to her crying (187). These feelings are not expanded upon. Perhaps Wei-Chen dating Suzy was meant to serve as a comparison for the interracial relationship between Jin and Amelia, but Wei-Chen dating Suzy is not brought up as much as other white relationships such as potential relationship between Amelia and Greg or Dany and Melanie.
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ReplyDeleteI was also confused and surprised when Jin abruptly kisses Suzy after she tells him a very personal story about discrimination. Suzy and Jin’s relationship never seems to be very strong nor are they alone with each other before this moment in the story. Before, the only time that the two characters talk is when Wei-Chen is with them, which makes their conversation together seem strange and awkward. I agree that this kiss is born of shared experiences but also because of Jin’s perceived restriction to date Amelia due to his race.
ReplyDeleteI think a connection between Jin and Suzy is formed from their shared struggles as Asian-Americans. They both face racial slurs from their classmates in school, however, I think the abrupt kiss is spurred from Jin’s altercation between him and Greg. After Jin’s date with Amelia, Greg insists that he leaves her alone and says to him, “I just don’t know if you’re right for her, okay?” (180). After feeling coerced by Greg and told not to date Amelia assumingly because of his race, I think the kiss between Jin and Suzy is the product of his feeling that unlike Amelia, there is no racial barrier between Suzy and himself. I think he acts on his built-up tension and frustration and kissed Suzy because of their shared struggles and his perceived restriction to date Amelia.