‘American Born Chinese’ Is a Thrilling ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Reunion

Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan plays a fairly minor role in the Disney+ family series American Born Chinese. But there may be no more important character to convey what the show is trying to do, and how well it succeeds at most of it. 

Chinese is a complicated mix of elements. Centered on the struggles of awkward teenager Jin (Ben Wang), it is a grounded coming-of-age story one minute, a supernatural escape with wuxia fights between ancient Chinese gods the next. Sprinkled in with all of that is a lot of commentary about how Asian characters have been portrayed in pop culture in the past. Quan is part of that last component, appearing sporadically at first on phone and TV screens as Freddy Wong, a clumsy racist caricature from a corny, fake Nineties sitcom, whose “What could go Wong?” catchphrase has found a second life as a TikTok meme. Freddy’s newfound viral fame is a thorn in the side of Jin, who just wants to be accepted by the cool kids at his predominantly white high school and is mortified when they connect him with Freddy’s buffoonery. Eventually, though, Quan gets to also play Jamie, the actor who found success as Freddy, then saw his career vanish in much the same fashion Quan’s own did for several decades before Everything Everywhere All at Once brought it back to life. 

On a reunion special for the sitcom, Jamie laments the kinds of stereotypical roles he was offered before giving up on the business, adding, “I hope there’s a kid out there watching this who feels he doesn’t have to be a punchline. Who believes that he can be the hero.” 

American Born Chinese seems determined to prove Jamie right, not only in showing how Jin learns to stand up for himself, but also in pairing him with Wei-Chen (Jim Liu), a gawky exchange student who turns out not to be the son of a Chinese businessman, but of Sun Wukong (Daniel Wu), the superpowered Monkey King of Chinese legend. Wei-Chen has come to suburban America to prevent the destruction of heaven by the vengeful Bull Demon (Leonard Wu), and believes Jin can aid him in this quest.  

The series gradually brings in Quan’s Everything co-stars Michelle Yeoh, James Hong, and Stephanie Hsu, with Yeoh the most prominent as Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, Compassion, and Kindness. And it shares a similar sense of ambition to that movie. In adapting Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel, there is a sense that writer Kelvin Yu is trying to squeeze in every genre, every theme, all at once, after so many decades of Asian Americans being denied the opportunity to participate in most stories as more than two-dimensional side characters. 

Such lofty creative goals engender a certain degree of risk, and there are times when the blend of larger-than-life action adventure with kitchen-sink realism doesn’t really work. Jin takes Wei-Chen’s true identity and mission shockingly in stride, for instance. And it’s distracting to see him sucking up to the guys on the soccer team or nervously flirting with classmate Amelia (Sydney Taylor) once he knows what else is happening. But other aspects — like the parallels between Sun Wukong’s feud with Bull Demon and tensions in the marriage of Jin’s immigrant parents, Simon (Chin Han) and Christine (Yeo Yann Yann) — very much live up to Guanyin’s insistence that “everything is more connected than you think.” 

“I just want to be a regular guy who does regular things,” Jin says at one point. It’s not quite Jamie’s rallying cry, but even Jin’s insistence on being normal — in a pop-cultural space where characters who look like him have rarely gotten the chance to simply be that — feels both relatable and admirable. American Born Chinese doesn’t always find the right balance between its regular and extraordinary elements, but it sure is a blast to watch it try.

All eight episodes of American Born Chinese are streaming now on Disney+. I’ve seen the whole first season.