《華裔美國人》幕后探

Going inside American Bom Chinese

¹⁾Adolescence has never been easy. Everybody hasbad memories of growing up. But being a new kid (alsothe only Chinese-American student) at school， beingtoo shy， having trouble making friends， having a crush onan all-American girl， hoping to fit in， coping with cultureconflict–Jin Wang has had to deal with all of that， aswell as ²⁾stereotypes and ³⁾subtle ⁴⁾racism. Alongsidestories of the Monkey King and Chin-Kee， three ⁵⁾apparentlyunrelated tales come together with an unexpectedtwist， in a modern fable that is not only extremelyamusing， but ⁶⁾poignant and deep from time to time.

Inspired by his own childhood experiences， Gene LuenYang has successfully created a groundbreaking readin his debut comic， American Born Chinese. In 2006， thebook became the first graphic novel to be nominatedfor a National Book Award. One year later， it won theMichael L. Printz Award for young-adult literature， afirst for a comic book， too.

Yang:I grew up reading comic books. I…I startedcollecting comic books in the fifth grade. And prettysoon after I started drawing them. I think that was oneof the key benefits of this ⁷⁾medium is that pretty muchanybody can do it. You know， you can read a comic bookone day， you can read your very first comic book one day，and on the next day you can start drawing them. There’re very few entry-level barriers. And then you can justtake what you drew over to your local ⁸⁾Kinko’s， makesome copies， and suddenly you’re a published author. Soit’s…

Interviewer: (laughs) I doubt that it’s that easy. Really，don’t you have to have a little bit of skill?

Yang:(laughs) That’s how most of us start.I also think that comics…a successful com-icisn’t necesarily one that is drawn well.It’s one where all thedifferent elem e n t swork together.So you don’t necessar-ily have to be a top- ⁹⁾notch artist in order tocreate a successful comic book.You know，there’re…there’re plenty of examples ofpeople， who are not ¹⁰⁾sterling ¹¹⁾illustrators， whoare able to create successful graphic novels andcomics. Marjean Sotropy， who did Persepolis–she isn’tparticularly…she’s not a ¹²⁾phenomenal illustrator，but she’s an amazing cartoonist. She’s a world-classcartoonist， simply because of the way she’s able to ¹³⁾leverage the drawing skills that she does have totell some really wonderful stories.

terviewer: You definitely ¹⁴⁾tapped into something.This was the first graphic novel that was nominatedfor a National Book Award. In this novel you’re tellingthree stories， really. You have these three ¹⁵⁾prominentcharacters: the Monkey King， the young Chinese-American boy growing up in a white ¹⁶⁾suburb， and thethird character is a guy named Chin-Kee， the ¹⁷⁾over-thetopAsian stereotype. Being semi- ¹⁸⁾autobiographical，what did you get out of writing this book?

Yang:Well，I…I think it gave me an opportunit yto reflect on my own experiences as an AsianAmerican， and that…that’s something that I still haveto think through.i think that this book has opened up alot of really good converastions and …and that’s beenreally good for me.

青春從來都不是一件容易事。每個人總會有些不那么美好的成長回憶。但是作為一名新生（同時也是學校里唯一的美籍華裔學生），過于害羞，很難交到朋友，愛上一個徹頭徹尾的美國女孩，希望融入集體，應付文化沖突——王謹要面對所有這些問題，還要克服刻板成見以及微妙的種族歧視。加上孫悟空和“精記”的故事，三個看似互不相干的情節在出人意料的轉折中融為一體，構成了一個不僅極為有趣，更不時流露出深刻沉痛的現代寓言。

受到自己的童年經歷啟發，楊謹倫將其漫畫處女作《華裔美國人》成功打造成一本極具突破性的讀物。2006年，這本書成了第一部獲得美國國家圖書獎提名的繪本。一年后，該書榮獲普林茲青年文學獎，也是第一部獲得該獎項的漫畫作品。

楊：我從小看著漫畫書長大。我……我從五年級就開始收集漫畫，不久之后就開始畫漫畫。我覺得這種媒介的一大好處就是——幾乎任何人都能創造漫畫。你知道，也許你今天看了一本漫畫，今天才看了你的第一本漫畫，第二天你就開始自己畫了。它的準入門檻非常低。然后你可以把自己的畫帶到當地的金考門店，印幾份作品，便搖身變為出版作家。所以這……

采訪人：（笑）我懷疑真的這么容易。說真的，難道你不需要一點繪畫技巧嗎？

楊：（笑）我們當中的大部分人都是這樣起步的。我認為漫畫……一部成功的漫畫不一定非得畫得很好。它的成功是不同因素共同作用的結果。所以你不一定非得是拔尖的畫家才能創作出成功的漫畫書。