STAYING POWER

American Born Chinese, the best-selling graphic novel, finally comes to television

- NICOLE CHUNG

AFTER YEARS OF PRINTING COMICS AT KINKO'S and selling them at conventions and local shops, Gene Luen Yang didn't expect his 2006 graphic novel American Born Chinese to get the attention it did. Blending the coming-of-age journey of Jin Wang, the son of Chinese American immigrants, with the adventures of characters from the Chinese epic Journey to the West, the best-selling book was a National Book Award finalist and won the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. Yet despite its success, a screen adaptation wasn't a goal for the author.

"I don't think there was a lot of interest in shows with Asian American protagonists back then," Yang tells me. The Margaret Cho-led All-American Girl had been canceled in 1995 after one season, and networks had hardly rushed to pursue other shows centering the experiences of Asian Americans. Plus, he had his own doubts: he thought it would be hard to effectively adapt and translate the edgiest of the book's three storylines-in which he has a character called "Chin-Kee" embody various racist anti-Asian stereotypes in an attempt to illustrate how harmful they are-for a TV audience. Then, a few years ago, he met Melvin Mar, a producer whose credits include the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, who in turn introduced him to Kelvin Yu, a producer and writer (Bob's Burgers) who also appeared on Aziz Ansari's Netflix series Master of None. Yang says Yu understood the challenges of bringing the graphic novel to life onscreen, and also had ideas about how to expand the story and the cast, address the difficult plotline, and make sure the show could resonate with a new generation.