Double Happiness

Double Happiness is a comic book (later published on the Web) 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.

The complete story can be read here.


 * Fish Out of Water
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Friendly Local Chinatown
 * Grotesque Cute
 * Hands-On Approach: How to properly use chopsticks.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal
 * Montage: Tommy's training in Hokkien and Chinatown culture.
 * Mood Dissonance: Holy crap.
 * Mood Whiplash: Holy crap.
 * 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".
 * Slice of Life
 * : Tom accidentally gets involved in this.