Category: Short Comics

Dressing Up

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by Renee Chen

Growing up, I always dreaded Halloween. Weeks in advance people would ask if I’d chosen a costume, and I’d always reply,

“Oh, you know, I’m not really into dressing up.”

To be fair, it’s not as celebrated in China – not that I’d really know, having been in Canada most of my life.

Really, I had this weird complex about costumes. I always felt like I wasn’t allowed to dress up as a character who wasn’t Asian, but that left so little to choose from. I couldn’t be just any character, I had to be the ‘Asian version.’ I was one of two Asian kids in my class, and I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, even if no one else thought the same.

Dressing up is supposed to be fun, I guess, but I got to play pretend every day. I pretended to understand all the references that all my friends made, I played the role of a ‘normal’ kid. I was already inauthentic, in every way.

–(Years later, way after I’d gotten too old to be dressing up, I mentioned this to a couple of my friends; some Asian, some not.

“Really?” they all said. “I don’t know, I never felt like that.”

As more and more Asian characters are introduced in popular franchises, I begin to wonder where all these role models were when I was a kid.

I wonder how many of the insecurities of my childhood actually had anything to do with people judging me by race, and how much of it was just me.)

Chimera

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by Weiwei Xu

You know 叶公好龙 (ye gong hao long)? That’s my comic in a nutshell. 叶公好龙 is a 4-word Chinese idiom based on a story about a dude who loves dragons soooo much he had them painted on all of his walls. Then one day, a real dragon comes down to thank him for his love, and he freaks out because he only liked images of dragons – the real thing was too much for him to handle. I’m him, and the dragon is China – I feel like a fake fan sometimes because I love being the Token Asian in Canada, but China feels alien to me.

Home

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by Lilly Taing

My comic is a small reflection on my experiences growing up Chinese Cambodian American in Los Angeles and living in between these cultures. While I have always struggled to feel like I belong in any one of these identities, it helped teach me how to appreciate the diverse experiences and beliefs that shape United States all into who we are.