Gene Luen Yang and Melvin Mar Discuss American Born Chinese, the Asian-American Renaissance, and More

Gene Luen Yang and Melvin Mar are the creative team behind Disney+’s must-see new series, American Born Chinese.

Based on Gene Luen Yang’s groundbreaking graphic novel that chronicles the trials and tribulations of a regular American teenager whose life is forever changed when he befriends the son of a mythological god. This is the story of a young man’s battle for his own identity, told through family, comedy, and action-packed Kung-Fu. The coming-of-age adventure features an all-star international cast, including Academy® Award winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, Ben Wang, International Emmy® Award Nominee Yeo Yann Yann, Chin Han, Daniel Wu, former Taekwondo champion Jimmy Liu, and Sydney Taylor.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Gene and Melvin about American Born Chinese, bringing this beloved graphic novel to life on the screen, the Asian-American renaissance, and more.

PC: Gene, your graphic novel came out fifteen years ago. At the time, the industry wasn’t open to Asian-American stories. You and everybody involved have been the first to acknowledge that this series is standing on the shoulders of projects like Crazy Rich Asians and Fresh Off the Boat, which feels very serendipitous to the many themes within this narrative. Could you ever have imagined the journey that you would be on today with American Born Chinese? As you get ready to introduce this story to a new generation of audiences, have you had time to reflect on your own contributions continuing us on this path?
Gene: I haven’t had a lot of time lately to. [laughs] But it’s been really incredible. I feel like throughout my career I’ve been standing on other people’s shoulders. As a cartoonist, I stood on the shoulders of cartoonists like Art Spiegelman and Craig Thompson, who opened a space in people’s minds for literary graphic novels. In terms of media, we’re absolutely standing on the shoulders of Crazy Rich Asians. Even before that, there were Anna May Wong and James Hong. We were standing on their shoulders to get this done. It’s absolutely astounding that we’re here!

PC: Melvin, similarly, throughout your career, you’ve played such an integral role in helping bring these much-needed stories to the forefront. You’ve been there when conversations about diversity and inclusion were less talked about. As this series has made its way to D23, SXSW, and the New York premiere, what is it like getting to see that response from the audience? Why has it taken us so long to get here?
Melvin: I don’t think we should look at it as why has it taken so long. I look at it as we’re here. There’s a reason why we’re here. Because like Gene said, we’re all standing on the shoulders of others. For me personally, it was The Joy Luck Club and Janet Yang. She’s the queen. She was doing it way before I even thought that I wanted to be in this industry. She was one of the pioneers. Because of that, we’re all standing on each other’s shoulders. There used to be such a dearth of Asian-American storytellers, both in front of and behind the camera, so what’s happening now is not a surprise. It just takes a minute to get everyone in line and to a place where they can do something about it. With all of these storytellers, this is what you’re seeing. This is as Gene said the beginnings of an Asian-American renaissance. It’s still very much in its infancy stage. But we have to keep going. That’s the exciting part of it.

PC: Gene, when you’re creating a graphic novel, it’s often just you at a drawing table. But bringing this story to life for television, it’s about the collaboration with everyone involved. What has that process been like getting to work with this cast and crew? How did their life experiences bring new elements to these characters and narrative?
Gene: That’s exactly right. One of the things that attracted me to it is that even though it’s a lot of work it’s still manageable enough for a single person to work on. The graphic novel for American Born Chinese is very much a me-story. It comes out of me. It comes out of my own experiences. I did all the work, except for the coloring which was handled by a very talented colorist named Lark Pien. But television is so labor intensive. You need an entire team, so it moves from being a me-story to a we-story, where you need a giant team of people to do it. That’s what Melvin did with his team. He assembled a team which includes Kelvin Yu, our showrunner, to spearhead it, to lead this team, and to create a space where everybody can pour a bit of themselves into the project. You see that up and down. You see that in the costumes that Joy Cretton created, and the sets that Michele Yu and Cindy Chao designed. Each of them put something very, very personal into what they were doing.

PC: Melvin, you’ve wanted to bring this story to life on the screen for such a long time. How did you finally convince Gene to make it into a television series? What was it about his work that resonated with you?
Melvin: His graphic novels are unbelievable and completely stuck with me for so long. I don’t know what I said to him. To me, it was a bunch of conversations that I think resonated with us both. When we first started talking about this, it was just the two of us. Then we added Kelvin and eventually Destin [Daniel Cretton]. I always said that it didn’t feel like work or like you were developing a show or anything. It felt like we were just having an amazing time chatting about life, experiences, and how we found ourselves where we were. It was like Asian guy therapy. That was the beginning of the nucleus and how you come up with a great show.

Make sure to follow Gene (Twitter/Instagram) and Melvin (Twitter/Instagram). American Born Chinese premieres on Disney+ on May 24th.