A tour-de-force by New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.

Organized by the English department's Asian American Reading Group and sponsored by Asian Studies' Channels Initiative, this lunchtime discussion is open to anyone interested in Gene Luen Yang’s award-winning graphic novel American Born Chinese (as well as graphic novels in general, learning more about Asian American studies, or meeting Asian Americanists at Penn State). We welcome students, instructors/faculty, and members of the general public!

We will be providing lunch and a hard copy of the graphic novel in advance for the first 25 registered participants. You will be notified by email if your registration was successful with information about when to pick up your copy at Burrowes in the last few weeks of the fall semester (so that you have winter break to read the graphic novel before our lunchtime discussion in January).

Register here by Friday, November 10.