entered an economic recession in the years after, racial animosity increased. The first major influx of Chinese immigrants occurred during the California Gold Rush beginning in 1848. American Born Chinese is also influenced greatly by Yang’s Christian beliefs, which manifest as the very Christian God-like figure of Tze-Yo-Tzuh.Īmerican Born Chinese draws from the long history of racism and discrimination against Chinese immigrants in the United States. During his master’s degree, he created an online comic to teach students math. Yang is vocal about the educational value of comics and graphic novels. Though American Born Chinese is his most famous work, he also wrote the series Avatar: The Last Airbender for Dark Horse Comics, as well as a Chinese character featured in DC Comics’ New Superman. In the mid-1990s, he began self-publishing his own comics, all of which were well-received. Though Yang worked as a computer engineer for several years, he ultimately decided that teaching was his calling and began teaching computer science to high school students. He received a degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. His parents encouraged him to get a college degree in something practical, despite Yang’s intense love of comics and his desire to be an animator for Disney. Yang’s parents, like Jin’s in the novel, emigrated to the United States as college students and met in the San Jose State University library during their time in graduate school (though Yang draws on details like this from his own family history, American Born Chinese isn’t autobiographical).

Author of american born chinese