In the graphic novel Lunar New Year Love Story, writer-illustrators Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham collaborate to craft a humorous and tender-hearted story about Valentina, a high school girl who searches for true love, even upon learning about the intergenerational curse of doomed romances in her Vietnamese American family. Alongside the romantic storyline is an uplifting story about a second-generation immigrant kid who breaks another intergenerational curse—the shame of losing parts of your culture because of displacement and circumstances that you had no control over.
Many scenes in Lunar New Year Love Story playfully present Valentina’s community in a way that resonates with anyone who grew up in a Vietnamese American enclave like Oakland. Valentina’s grandmother, for example, is among the active Vietnamese church ladies at St. Vitus Catholic Church. Pham illustrates her as an expressive small woman with a restless personality, gesturing energetically in her zebra-print button-up shirt and black pants, a handbag that is probably from Gucci, and a bold cross necklace. Scenes with Grandma are animated with the gathering of Vietnamese people, from Vietnamese churchgoers in the pews to an aerial view of the Lunar New Year Festival in a red, yellow, pink palette that captures the essence of Tết celebrations in Little Saigons across the Viet diaspora.
The authors pay homage to the liveliness of Vietnamese traditions throughout the graphic novel, but it is significant that these scenes are not familiar to our protagonist Valentina, who is experiencing everything for the first time. Even though Valentina grew up in Oakland, Valentina’s single father did not raise her with Vietnamese culture. This is revealed when Valentina’s grandma re-enters her life, pointing out things like the absence of fish sauce in her kitchen.
Many children of immigrants have felt shame at one time or another for not being able to speak their mother tongue. Sometimes that shame is internalized, and other times it is an off-handed comment from an elder that one is supposed to respect, but their words cut deep. Yang and Pham directly challenge this response of shame in a scene where a successful Vietnamese entrepreneur Mr. Phan, owner of the bánh mì chain Phanwich, meets Valentina and criticizes her for not knowing Vietnamese: “Hmph. Why didn’t your parents teach you? What’s wrong with them?” Yang and Pham dedicate only one panel to Valentina’s upset expression. Rather than ruminating on Mr. Phan’s hurtful comment, Valentina chooses to let it go because it’s his wedding day. In this scene, Mr. Phan’s actions are presented as immature, while Valentina is the bigger person, having done nothing wrong to earn Mr. Phan’s harsh judgment.
Yang and Pham resist the narrative of shame for not inherently knowing one’s culture, and instead embrace the exciting and healing process of learning all about it. Valentina’s grandma never makes Valentina or her father feel small for not being “Vietnamese enough.” Instead, she generously brings Vietnamese dishes and culture to them, and the joy of Vietnamese Catholic community. Importantly, by taking Valentina to the Tết festival, Valentina’s grandma introduces her to the art of lion dancing, which is at the center of the Lunar New Year Love Story. The elaborate lion costumes and emphatic presence of drums—the lion’s heartbeat—majestically translate onto the page in reds and blues. Valentina’s journey from a beginner to a devoted lion dancer demonstrates that the joy of identifying with one’s culture is not necessarily inherent but can be cultivated.
Moreover, Lunar New Year Love Story delicately balances intergenerational trauma and joy in a familiar Vietnamese community, which fans of Carolyn Huynh’s The Fortunes of Jaded Women will love. Yang and Pham’s writing and illustration graciously bear witness to kids who must parent themselves when the adults in their lives are grieving, parents who struggle to have the difficult conversations that they know they need to have with their kids, and the humor and wisdom of uncles, grandmothers, and lion dancing shifus who all help to raise the next generation. If a part of being Vietnamese to Valentina means inheriting a curse of tragic love stories, where romantic relationships are strained by displacement and historical strife in the motherland, then Valentina also receives the rituals that helped her ancestors confront bad spirits. As diaspora kids, we can learn about and integrate our ancestors’ traditions into our lives to support us in whichever way we need.
Lunar New Year Love Story is an empowering story for readers at any stage of encountering their heritage. Each Asian American character contains multitudes, making room for fascinating connections between what is traditionally seen as Eastern versus Western culture. Valentina’s coming-of-age story and pursuit of true love reaches a pinnacle in her conversation with a whimsical ghost of Saint Valentine in Rome about how lion dancing is not about dancing with a lion, but more fascinatingly, becoming one with the lion. “How good it is then…to find someone with whom you can become the lion,” through all the majesty and misery of life.
Lunar New Year Love Story
by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
First Second
Cathy Duong is a current Masters student at UW Seattle Genetic Counseling program. In her free time, she enjoys traveling to Little Saigons, playing V-pop on her ukulele, and analyzing diasporic Viet literature.
