Exclusive: American Born Chinese’s Yeo Yann Yann shares deeper meaning behind the show’s mythology
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High school can be rough. We know. We’ve watched enough YA shows to know that what goes on underneath a roof bulging with teenage angst, insecurities and drama is pretty intense.
Then you toss in warring mythical Chinese gods (who no longer seem so mythical), a quest to save humanity and soccer tryouts. That’s a cocktail strong enough to try any teen's patience, which is where we find our titular character Jin (Ben Wang): pushed to his absolute limits.
Thank goodness Disney+’s latest fantasy fix, American Born Chinese, saw the good sense to cast Yeo Yann Yann as the caring, supportive (sometimes pushy) mum Christine.
Jin can definitely use as much guidance as he can get his hands on.
American Born Chinese’s narrative is billed as one that sees two worlds collide. When Jim Liu’s Wei-Chen descends from the heavens to strong-arm Jin into helping him there is a merging of two worlds that feels apt when Yeo speaks of her take on the show.
To her, American Born Chinese incorporates an element of searching, of finding one’s place in the world as well as learning to understand each other's differences.
In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Yeo shares the important lesson American Born Chinese’s mythological narrative holds, what it was like to work with Everything Everywhere All At Once's Michelle Yeoh and how we’ve been pronouncing 'Wang' wrong all along.
American Born Chinese spoilers follow.
Watch American Born Chinese on Disney+
What was your reaction when you saw American Born Chinese for the first time?
I was just really, really surprised – or pleasantly surprised – by how great the quality of the show is because I saw it on the big screen, and it’s supposed to be a TV series but the quality of the show is of a film quality.
I am so in awe of the talent, of how talented my team members are. They’re great. The creator of the book Gene Luen Yang, the showrunner Kelvin Yu, Melvin [Mar], who is a producer, and Destin Cretton. I’m working with a dream team. Michelle Yeoh. It’s crazy. There’s Stephanie Hsu.
And it’s my first job here. How lucky could I get? And we went to the White House. The whole journey was like a dreamland, you know? I’m in a dream state.
That’s so wonderful to hear.
The whole journey has an element of Journey to the West, and it is my journey to the West.
So it’s even more rewarding for you to see?
Totally. It’s a totally amazing journey. I’m still at it.
Your character is like the heart of the show. You’re the one that keeps Jin grounded. What was it like to play Christine?
I fell in love with Christine from the first time I saw the script. She is really warm. She is not the typical Tiger Mom that we’ve seen for an Asian mom. She’s concerned, but she knows where to back out.
I mean, the first scene I saw – you’ve seen the show?
Yeah, all of it.
The first scene I read is actually the scene where we were choosing the “hot stuff” jacket. That was the first scene I read. You can really see very clearly how this mom and son came from a different culture, but they’re trying very hard to understand each other, or to communicate with each other.
I just like how she goes, “I’m concerned. I’m trying to be sweet about it. I’ll leave you some space.”
What do you think it was like for her, watching Jin go through so much self-doubt, knowing that he has a lot more potential than he gives himself credit for?
I think when he talks about his self-doubt, it hurts Christine. I mean, what mother wouldn’t be sad or worried when their child is revealing such a dark secret in their heart? And that is just the first scene of the show. You can see that Mom is really, really worried about him, that she has to pretend, that she’s like, “No, it’s OK. It’s a teenager thing.”
It’s really every mom everywhere in the world.
It's really interesting that we’re introduced to the Wang family, and then throughout the whole series they’re known as the Wang family, until Simon reveals at the end that it’s actually pronounced ‘Wong’. Why do you think that reveal was held back from the audience?
I’ve thought about this before. I’m coming from Asia, where I grew up and worked all my life and when I come here, it really doesn’t matter for me, because Wang is a phonetic way of pronunciation. A phonetic way of pronouncing W-A-N-G and where the family name is really in Mandarin – the Mandarin pronunciation.
So is it pronounced Wang, then?
Wong.
W-o-ng.
It’s like there’s no tone. There’s tone if you’re reading it in Mandarin. It’ll be Wang (pronounced ‘Wong’) instead of Wang. Only when I arrived in the USA, when I started doing the work, did I realise: this is actually a conflict point, or this is a point that is actually disturbing. It’s something that we want it to sound like ‘Wong’ instead of ‘Wang’.
It didn’t occur to me that it would be something we would talk about but I’m glad. I came here, and I had more understanding because all these issues were news to me. It was in the newspaper, it was online, talking about. It had nothing to do with me, really.
Can we talk a little bit about Beyond Repair, which is obviously the ‘90s show within the show itself? The episodes are clearly there to address the negative stereotypes of Asians within television but how do they directly link to the story of American Born Chinese?
I’ve got to tell you the truth: I haven’t seen the whole series. I don’t know how they weave into the story now, because when you’re reading it in a script, and you’re presenting it on a screen, it’s going to be different.
I’ve only seen the first and second episode, and that’s all I have for the character. But I must say, Ke is such an amazing actor.
How far do you think we’ve moved away from those stereotypes on television?
I can only speak for Christine. When she had left, she had really gone very, very far. She is becoming a human with flesh and wounds. She’s becoming a mother of all races [laughs]. She’s becoming a mother – a concerned mother. Sweet, warm, kind. She’s flawed. She’s not perfect. She’s trying all the time.
Where do you think that Jin’s parents were taken at the end of the series?
[laughs] I don’t know.
Any theories?
I was hoping – I can only say “I hope”. My dream – my dream is to be in the immortal world. I always said that we are super-mortal [laughs]. Everything good and bad, pretty and ugly – we have it, in a parent’s trait.
If you could have played anybody else in the series, who would you have played? Would you have wanted powers?
I’ve got to tell you, the Goddess of Mercy [Guanyin]. Who else in this world would forgive everything that we do? The Goddess of Mercy. Only a mother could forgive anything that we as humans do. That is so very beautiful and when I knew that Michelle was playing Guanyin, I was like, “This is the most amazing dream I could have, to work with her.”
Did you know about this particular Chinese mythology before?
Yeah. We grew up with this story. I grew up with Journey to the West, and I had to study it in my literature class in high school.
So what was it like for you to see that come to screen?
It’s always been on screen in Asia. It’s on film, it’s on TV but this will be the first time that the character comes to the present world, and meets the present world, and is relevant to the present world. The journey…
Well, to me, Journey to the West, the most important part of it is the reflection of it with life. What they have to do to get the scripture from the West, they have to go through 81 difficulties – or 81 in their life.
To me, it reflects in our life that, wherever we go, when we’re heading towards our scriptures, we will meet difficulties. When you have a goal, you’re bound to meet difficulties. You’re bound to meet obstacles. They’ll come in your way, and that is all the demons. We have to meet our demons.
That is something I think is really relevant, to prize in life. That’s why it’s a classic. It’s like Shakespeare. No matter what time and age you put the character, it works. It’s the equivalent of Shakespeare’s work.
With the way that American Born Chinese ended, it is so ripe for a season two. Do you know if there are any plans?
Have you heard anything? Can you please tell me? I would love to know.
We're guessing that you would love to have a season two, then?
Of course. The journey doesn’t end there. It definitely doesn’t end there.
American Born Chinese is streaming now on Disney+.
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