American Born Chinese Analysis

It is inevitable that people will be prejudice towards those who are a minority, especially when they are a person of color standing out. This is especially apparent in children because going to school at a young age, children do not have a filter in between what is right and what is wrong. Being born in a different country and then coming to America with different everyday traditions really demonstrates this in a first-person point of view. As these children grow up you see two different sides of the spectrum; the kids who judge, and the kids who get judged. Being on the side where people are getting made fun of constantly makes them want to change their values and be ashamed of their heritage. In the Graphic Novel, American Born Chinese,

the principles of self-love and acceptation are shown by using multiple characters and story lines that overall come together.

Yang uses transformation in three of his story arcs to show how conforming hinders the characters from being their true selves and embracing their culture to persuade students to overcome racial adversity.
In the graphic novel’s first story arc, the monkey king’s story shows readers the ignorance of the Monkey King and how this relates to students’ insecurities. Overall, the author ties the Monkey King's story in with the other two stories to make everything at the end of the book relevant. The Monkey King tries to fit in at dinner parties and with other deities, when he realizes they all judge him and think less of him because he is a monkey. They bring up judgments about how he does not wear shoes and then becomes very insecure about that specific comment, which becomes a main symbol of the story (Page 24, Panel 2). This symbol represents an insecurity for the children that have grown up in different cultures but are surrounded by American

culture and frowned upon at school. By the end of the monkey kings story, he finally takes the shoes off and you see the monkey king for who he truly is. He does so much training in order to prove himself worthy to the deity’s. This is a great example of people growing up always trying to fit in and the readers of the book start to understand this as a lesson. He refuses to admit to himself that he is a monkey, and is ashamed to have a monkey family, similar to Jin’s situation. The Monkey King believes he is bigger and better than everyone and this only brings him down more because he knows deep down that he is just a monkey and nothing more. Towards the end of the Monkey King story, a Monk has been sent to talk to the monkey and make him go on a mission with the Monk (Page 164, Panel 3). When the monk runs into the monkey, monks travel without shoes, shoes are a form of human-like feature for the monkey. He decides that leaving behind his shoes to help the monk did not matter and that was his step to accepting his true self as a monkey while leaving all insecurities behind.
In the next story arc about a Jins transformation, we see his insecurities as an example to embrace one’s identity.

This is the first of multiple transformations that we see figuratively and literally. Jin goes to a new elementary school and not only do all students think he is a FOB (fresh off the boat), the teacher does as well. White students make fun of his name, food, assume he eats dogs and cats, assumes the other Asian girl is his relative or an arranged marriage (Page 40, Panel 4). This shows the constant stereotyping that is in America and helps teachers or students realize what it can do to American born immigrants in the long run. Jin is young and as he grows, he will want to become of what is around him. This can be the beginning of a so called “transformation” because of the people in his school judging him for having different values although he is mostly already what Americans call normal for themselves. As he keeps growing older and not being let into the groups of friends that he wants he finally befriends the only other Asian kid in his school which feeds more into his stereotype. Day by day, year by year, Jin doesn’t want to be the Asian person he has always been. When he asks Amelia, a white classmate to hangout, a white boy asks Jin to stay away from her because he doesn’t want Amelia to hang out with the wrong people since Asians are viewed as abnormal. In an attempt to transform himself, because being Asian is not cool, he wishes very much to become a

white person, named Danny (Page 190, Panel 2). This is the transformation that we literally see happen from Jin to Danny because of the insecurities that he holds. Through the rest of the graphic novel we see stories starting to tie together because Danny turns back into his true identity as Jin, because of his cousin from china, “Chin Kee”. This lesson was one of the multiple to teach the reader about how loving oneself is always key to being successful and happy with your life.
In the last story Arc, Chin-Kee’s transformation emerges into Danny’s life as a cousin who visits every year, bringing out his true identity to prove to him who he really and how everybody should be proud of who they are. Chin-Kee is a stereotypical Chinese person who has a thick accent, eats cats, doesn’t understand social cues, lacks mannerism, common sense and just flat out embarrasses Danny overall. His character serves as a trigger to white Danny to realize that being Chinese, no matter how FOB you are, you are a part of a culture that makes you who you are. As you are reading the story you stop and think “why would Danny have a Chinese cousin if he is completely white”. Over and over again you see a correlation within the stories. You see the character Jin being nonstop embarrassed because of the values of his culture and ethnicity, just like how Danny is nonstop embarrassed of his cousin, Chin-Kee. You see Chin-Kee’s transformation when they are fighting in one of the last scenes of the book and you finally find out what everything is all about and how all three transformations overall correlate (Page 216, Panel 6). The reader see’s everything come together and understands how all three stories line up. Chin-Kee’s character is shown to present distorted minority youth culture, and to help teachers and students see their responsibility to respect each practice and value every culture holds. We see why Chin-Kee is there in the first place, and see how he is the symbol that guides Danny to being his true self.
Yang sends a message to not only all the Asian kids’ reading this story, but any skin color or ethnicity, and every modern-day teacher about how being ashamed of your ethnicity has no point and instead think that they can make a difference because they are not any different than the dominant culture. Yang uses a graphic novel to put together three stories and use this as a device to bring people to realize that being an Asian-American is something to be very proud of. As Jin transforms into a white kid, his opinions also transform when he realizes that being Asian is nothing to be ashamed of. When the monkey refuses to admit his true self, his opinion also transforms and he is proud to be a monkey and, therefore, helps Jin realize the importance of self-acceptance whether you are Chinese or a monkey. Overall, you see that these transformations helped one another become their true selves, become more mature and over all better people for themselves by accepting their true identity.