12 May 2009
Asian-American Experiences Viewed Through Superhero Lens
Graphic novel examines how Asian Americans have helped shape U.S. history
Washington — “Superheroes have become the central mythology of our time,” says Jeff Yang, editor-in-chief of the graphic novel Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology.
“All you have to do is go to the movies and see how every blockbuster is a superhero story,” Yang, a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle, told America.gov. Unfortunately, Asian Americans usually have not had their “faces and voices depicted as part of that amazing tradition.”
In creating an original collection of superhero stories, the editors of Secret Identities sought to fill that gap.
“One of the things we wanted to accomplish with Secret Identities was to use the lens of the superhero archetype, one of the most iconic and American forms of storytelling, to illuminate the many facets of the Asian-American experience,” said Keith Chow, the anthology’s education and outreach editor. “Similarly, by having so many contributors (66 in total) with such different art styles and writing styles, we were also able to showcase and celebrate the diversity that exists within the Asian-American community.”
Among the contributors to the anthology are such industry names as Kazu Kibuishi, editor and art director of the Flight comics and the creator of the Amulet graphic novels for Scholastic Publishing; Greg LaRocque, an artist who has worked on Legion of Super-Heroes and The Flash; Greg Pak, a writer for the Hulk comics for Marvel and editor of AsianAmericanComics.com; and Gene Yang, author of the award-winning graphic novel American Born Chinese. (See “Graphic Novels: An Evolving Art Form Tackles New Themes.”)
Asian-American artists outside of the graphic novel industry also participated, including actresses Lynn Chen and Kelly Hu, and filmmakers Michael Kang and Leonardo Nam.
According to Yang, the editors wanted “to create a pantheon of original superheroes that were as rich and interesting as the superheroes we grew up loving — but that were authentically Asian American, coming from a place and culture we recognized and connected with.”
“We grew up as fans of comic books because the media we were surrounded by had so few heroes that we could identify with as Asian Americans,” he said. “Other than Bruce Lee, who died before any of us were born, there were no heroic Asians on TV or in films. There weren’t any in comic books either, really ... but at least we could pretend that, behind the masks, the faces of the secret identities of heroes like Spiderman and Batman might possibly look a little something like us.
“And yet, when those masks came off, it was Peter Parker, not Peter Park; Bruce Wayne, not Bruce Wong. … Even in the comic books, where people could be from anywhere — other planets and dimensions — and look like anything — red, blue, purple or green — we were invisible,” Yang said.
Many of the stories in Secret Identities are inspired by significant events in Asian-American history, from the building of American railroads in the 1800s to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin in 1982 and the government’s espionage charges — later dropped — against scientist Wen Ho Lee in 1999.
“By using larger-than-life, iconic characters, the writers of these stories were able to highlight the enormous and largely unexplored ways that Asian Americans have played a role in shaping our nation’s history,” Yang said. “At the same time, by telling these stories, we were creating dozens of superheroes who are organically Asian American, based on their very origins.”
Managing Editor Parry Shen explained the criteria the editors used in selecting which stories would be included in the anthology.
“There was only one requirement we asked of potential contributors — that the heroes organically come from an Asian-American perspective. They had to ask themselves, ‘Why is this character in this particular anthology?’” he said.
“By having the writers … follow that mantra, it forced the richness of the Asian-American experience in the back stories to show through and make these characters compelling and nuanced — as opposed to just slapping on an ethnicity as an afterthought. But at the same time, we were also very conscious of the other extreme and didn’t want overcompensating, preachy Asian heroes standing on a soapbox either,” Shen said.
Chow said he has been surprised by the enthusiasm of people who are not necessarily fans of comic books. “I’ve encountered so many people who tell me that they don’t read comics, but had to preorder this because just the notion of having Asian Americans represented in an art form that has become so integral to popular culture was an important thing to support,” he said.
Art Director Jerry Ma said he and the other editors have talked about making another anthology. “I’m looking forward to taking what we learned from this first book and applying it to the next,” he said. “Hopefully, this won’t stop, and we’ll be making books for as long as there are still great stories to tell.”
The full transcript of the interview is available on America.gov.
More information about the book and an educational guide to the events that inspired many of the stories are available on the anthology Web site.
