Double Happiness is a comic book by Jason Shiga.
Upon coming to San Francisco, Tom meets up with his cousin, Jackson, who offers to let Tom stay at his place in Chinatown. Tom's initial excitement turns to frustration when he realizes that he doesn't fit in with his Chinese-American relatives any better than he did with the whites back in Boston. In response, Parker and his friends take it upon themselves to teach Tom the language and the finer points of Chinatown culture.
Life is looking pretty good... and then everything comes crashing down, hard. Tom ends up with a crowbar in his hand and a choice to make.
It was once available on Shiga's website but has sadly been taken down.
Not to be confused with the 1994 film starring Sandra Oh.
This comic book and provides examples of:
- Foreshadowing: "You haven't seen me backed into a corner," and "Cheer up man. At least your face isn't horribly disfigured."
- Hands-On Approach: How to properly use chopsticks.
- Montage: Tommy's training in Hokkien and Chinatown culture.
- Mukokuseki: The thugs who attack Tom look kinda like skinheads, but they're actually supposed to be Tongs.
- Outside/Inside Slur: The (Chinese-American) protagonist complains that he's "such a twinkie".
- The Triads and the Tongs: Tom accidentally gets involved in this.
- The Whitest Black Guy: Tom (a Chinese American from Brooklyn) moves in with some relatives from San Francisco's Chinatown. He's distressed to realize how little of the culture he understands—he doesn't even recognize which language his relatives are speaking (it's Hokkien). He is, unfortunately, too Chinese to fit in back in Brooklyn, yet too white to fit in here in Chinatown. "I'm such a twinkie!" Fortunately, his relatives are happy to teach him how to fit in.
