Why Disney+'s New Show "American Born Chinese" Means So Much to Me
My bestie and I were incredibly honored to attend Gold House’s advance screening of the first two episodes of American Born Chinese!
We kicked off the event with mini boba drinks from one of my favorite places, Bopomofo! We even got to meet the owner Phillip Wang (you may recognize him from Wong Fu Productions!) who was handing out the drinks himself.
We also got to enjoy chow mein from Panda Express for dinner!
Before the screening started, I snapped a quick photo with Ben Wang, who plays Jin in the show. I even had him sign my copy of the graphic novel the show is based off of!
This show merges three seemingly separate storylines - a modern retelling of the Monkey King from the old Chinese folktale Journey to the West, Jin Wang and his coming-of-age as a child of Chinese immigrants, and Danny (an “all-American boy”) and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee - which are eventually tied together at the end of the season.
As an American-born Chinese myself, I saw a lot of myself in Jin (played by Ben Wang). I still remember the embarrassment of bringing Chinese food for lunch to school that I begged my parents to let me bring Lunchables or get school provided lunch. I’m also not proud of this, but looking back, at times I did feel like I was “cooler” or “above” the other Asian kids at school who didn’t grow up in America - similar to Jin, I was desperate to assimilate and not be seen as “too Asian” by my peers.
It’s not to say that I wasn’t proud of being Chinese, because eventually I learned to love my culture. My high school was primarily made up of Asian American kids just like me. Seeing so many of them celebrate parts of who they were gave me the permission and courage to accept parts of myself, but in a sense, I still live in two worlds - to this day, I’m figuring out a way to seamlessly blend being Chinese and being American together.
I’m excited to see the rest of the season, and I’m so grateful to have another new show that I can see myself in! It makes me feel less alone in my experience as a Chinese American, but ultimately, I think there is something that everyone can relate to in this show, regardless of your ethnic background.
After the panel, we got to meet the producers and cast! Gene Luen Yang, who is the author of the original graphic novel and serves as Executive Producer of the show, was so sweet and personally got everyone to sign my book for me!
I also loved meeting Daniel Wu (who plays the Monkey King), Sydney Taylor (who plays Amelia), Yeo Yann Yann (who plays Christine), and Chin Han (who plays Simon). Everyone was so kind and I can’t wait to see more of each of their characters in the show!
It was also lovely running into Soy Nguyen, who is one of my favorite foodie influencers and happened to be attending the event as well!
I also finally got to meet one of my Instagram friends, Thaddeus, in person for the first time! It’s always so nice getting to connect with our online community in real life.
Huge thank you to Gold House for inviting me to this event! Be sure to stream all eight episodes of American Born Chinese on Disney+ beginning 5/24!
xo,
Keshia