FOR THE MOST PART, Jin Wang is a typical high-school kid. He has a solid manga collection, aspires to join the soccer team, and is deep into the mumbling phase that comes with figuring out who you’re going to be. When we first meet Jin, played by a winning Ben Wang, he’s about to start tenth grade and finds himself engaged in the age-old teen ritual of shopping for clothes with his mother, whose picks give him something to chafe against. His parents, Christine and Simon (Yeo Yann Yann and Chin Han), are having identity crises too: Both Chinese immigrants in California, they’re grappling with frustrations over their own lost youth. So far, so coming-of-age family drama. When Disney+’s American Born Chinese operates in that mode, it’s an uncommonly observant and tender take on growing up as a first-generation immigrant. Which makes it a shame when the whole thing gets buried under layers of Marvel-ized nonsense.
Jin’s world is shaken up with the arrival of Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu), the new kid in school, whose way of being draws out a sharp racial aspect in Jin’s teenage anxieties. Unlike Jin, Wei-Chen didn’t grow up in the U.S., and a rich contrast forms between Jin’s self-doubt and Wei-Chen’s self-confidence. While Jin is drawn to Wei-Chen’s loud and open nature, he feels ashamed at times to be associated with his otherness.
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