Chane Wassanasong

Chane Wassanasong is the spoiled, mean-spirited son of Ted Wassanasong and Cindy Wassanasong. He attends Tom Landry Middle School with Bobby Hill and Connie Souphanousinphone, and later becomes the co-owner of the Robata Chane restaurant. He was previously voiced by Pamela Adlon as a young teenager, before being recast to Ki Hong Lee as an adult.

Appearance[]

In the original series, Chane is a 13-year-old Laotian American boy with an athletic build, tan skin, and short black hair styled in spikes. Chane's appearance as an adult is largely consistent with how he looked as a teenager, with the only noticeable change being his increase in height and slightly longer hair.

History[]

Kahn frequently pressures Connie to date Chane, as Kahn wishes to gain favor from Chane's father Ted, who sits on the membership board for the exclusive Nine Rivers Country Club. Although Connie insists that Chane is "a boring know-at-all who talks about himself and cheats at miniature golf", she has dated him on occasion either to appease her parents, or to spite Bobby when he acts up. Chane was second oboe in an orchestra with Connie and was on the track team in the episode "Bobby On Track". He considers himself a ladies' man, as he tries to flirt with Connie and has flirted with her friends before. In the episode "Bobby Goes Nuts", Chane and his friends bully Bobby twice and forcibly make him eat dirt. On the second occasion, Bobby kicked Chane in the groin, causing him immense pain. After this particular episode, Chane is rarely seen bullying Bobby again, and when he does, it is only light teasing. Chane develops some semblance of respect for Bobby during "Bobby On Track" and "Stressed For Success" due to Bobby's skills influencing extracurricular teams, although he still calls Bobby the vulgar nickname "Booby Hill" (a play on the slang word "boobies"). Chane is seen in the episode "Lucky's Wedding Suit" attending Luanne's wedding with his family in the background and smiling. In "Bobby Rae", he impatiently told Bobby to pick a soda from the machine, but Bobby suddenly shouted an anti-soda rant to his surprise.

Chane physically looks more like his father, but he is more openly a bully and less manipulative than Ted. It is revealed in "Won't You Pimai Neighbor?" that Chane has often been pushed into things he hates by Ted and Cindy; he admits to Bobby and Connie that he had no interest in being the chosen Lama Sanglug reincarnation despite his parents' coaxing because Lamas are not allowed to get married or have girlfriends. Chane's information inadvertently led Bobby to reflect more on whether he wanted to be a Lama or Connie's boyfriend, in the end saving their relationship. Chane is also seen in "Stressed For Success" being pushed by Ted to the point of extreme duress to win the school's Quiz Bowl competition.

As an adult, Chane is Bobby's vain, lazy, and arrogant boss, owning the restaurant that Bobby is employed at, Robata Chane. He is rarely ever at the restaurant and delegates all of the day-to-day responsibilities to Bobby, similarly to how Buck Strickland treated Hank. Chane takes Bobby's credit for the work he puts into running the restaurant, especially when it will make him look good in front of others: at one point, when Connie tried to prompt Chane to give Bobby credit, he was ignorant to what she meant. Chane's selfishness is also shown in his relationship with Connie; he proposed they engage in Ethical Non-Monogamy, which he simply used as an excuse to both sleep with other women and avoid having to provide emotional support to Connie in her times of need.

Trivia[]

It is implied that Kahn, despite wanting his daughter to date Chane, doesn't think very highly of him to begin with. This is verified in "The Redneck on Rainey Street" when Kahn witnesses Chane wiping his nose on his own arm before observing the resulting snot left behind curiously; Kahn's theory is further confirmed when he learns that Ted and Cindy had to bribe a school to allow Chane into its summer program. Chane is, however, shown to be very skilled in the subject of history during "Stressed for Success", reading books on Copernicus and being a member of the Quiz Bowl extracurricular club that only the honours students (and Bobby Hill, in the area of pop culture) are members of. That said, his reasoning for this seems to be to get into a university with a good frat house where he can meet girls, which he has accomplished in Season 14.
Chane is shown to be extremely insecure and jealous of Bobby at times, even depending on Bobby when the two happen to be on the same team together in extracurricular groups. This has continued into their adult years and with Bobby being the chef and partner for Chane's restaurant.
- Chane's relationship with Bobby in the 14th season, plus the fact that Bobby holds a 15% stake of the Robata Chane restaurant as well as his position as head chef, parallels Buck Strickland's relationship with Hank Hill; with Hank doing the majority of the work while Buck takes credit. Both Chane and Buck also frequently have an affair with women (though for Chane, it is with the consent of Connie as long as they are approved by her). Unlike Buck, where Hank has mostly given his boss light criticism and otherwise has a mutual bond with Strickland, Bobby is shown to be more explicit with his disdain for Chane when behind his back.
As an American-born anglophone, his legal name, Chane Wassanasong is translated to Lao script as (Lao: ແຊນ ວະສະນາສົງ). The use of native script alongside a legal full name is common in Buddhist tradition and documentation, such as in birth, death, and marriage announcements. As Chane was a candidate chosen for testing to determine whether he was the reincarnated Lama Sanglug, a native origin committee of senior monks would have received reports in their native language documenting the process.
It is revealed in the episode A Man Without a Country Club that Ted and Cindy started forbidding Chane to date Connie as they were getting sick of Kahn and Minh, which would explain why Chane never approached Connie with any romantic intent even after Bobby and Connie broke up.
- While this changed in Season 14, Ted and Cindy's opinion of Kahn and Minh only deteriorated further with the revelation of their divorce, to the point where they also claimed Connie was not marriage material for Chane. It is unknown, but implied that they were not aware of Chane and Connie's agreement to engage in Ethical Non-Monogamy.