ipl-logo

American Born Chinese Analysis

1224 Words5 Pages

Identity, Shame and Confrontation: „American Born Chinese“ by Gene Luen Yang The graphic novel „American Born Chinese“ written by Gene Luen Yang is an award-winning combination of three parallel stories. One story is about Jin Wang, a young Chinese-American boy who only wants to fit in, another about an American student who is tortured by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, the personification of every negative Chinese stereotype. The last story is a re-creation of the legend of the Monkey King. The three characters Jin Wang, Danny and the Monkey King are world apart, but they share the same troubles, which they have inflicted upon themselves. The three characters are trying to establish their individuality. On the other hand they are ashamed of their culture as …show more content…

He’d never noticed it before.”page 20 ) Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the creator of all, buries the Monkey King, under a pile of rocks, for his haughtiness, where he stays for five hundred years until he finally achieves his salvation from the hands of a monk and accepts his identity as an ordinary monkey. All main characters in „American Born Chinese“ face the problem of trying to change to gain a higher status in the social hierarchy. „I am a deity I am a committed disciple of the arts of kung-fu and I have mastered the four major heavenly disciplines, prerequisites to immortality.“ ( page 14). He desires to be more than a monkey. He wants to be called Great Sage. "You may be a king- you may be a deity-but you are still a monkey“ (page 16). The answer of the guard makes him feel that he is an ordinary monkey. The picture on page 16 shows his fierceness to the rejection of the entrance and the refusal of identifying him as a god. In conclusion Yang has presented the different emotions of the three different characters separately to highlight his theme of cultural identity and the shame associated with it. Yang seems to be presenting the tales

Show More
Related
467 Words | 2 Pages

Gene Luen Yang’s latest book, Dragon Hoops is a semi-autobiographical book about Gene's time traveling and novelizing the story of the O’Dowd Dragons and their quest to win state championships. Gene is the author of the award-winning autobiography American Born Chinese, a school math teacher, and a comic book nerd. In this essay. I will tell you about this book’s theme of “everyone has a story worth telling.”

Read More
1247 Words | 5 Pages

Xiong uses battles, executions, assassinations, and scandals to appeal to readers of any genre. Once a reader gets into the book they are hooked in the epic events of the book and the deep look into the ruling class. Unfortunately, Xiong’s novel might somewhat difficult to get into for many readers with no experience in Chinese history. Xiong also attempts to utilize dialogue that often comes off as underdeveloped or simplistic.

Read More
1095 Words | 5 Pages

Although he draws out a story where a Chinese boy turns against his own language and culture for the sake of fitting in, the moral of the comic is that the past will always be a part of you no matter what. The two texts give the readers examples of what makes the past, so rich and how our roots are truly forever bound to us. The authors, both hope to have their audience realize that wanting to fit into one’s generation is fine, but knowing one’s roots and accepting them as your own as you are doing so, is even

Read More
87 Words | 1 Pages

Unfortunately, like every other culture, they have had to face cultural appropriation.

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang (2006), it talks about three different people’s stories. The author starts off with telling a story about a monkey called the Monkey King, who lives in the jungle, seeking for higher power to become considered a god in the book. The author also tells a story about an American born Chinese boy named Jin Wang, who moves from San Francisco and struggles with fitting in at a new school. The last story the author tells is about a boy named Danny who has his cousin Chin-Kee from China visit every year. Danny ends up struggling to keep his reputation in adequate shape at school after his cousin visits causing him to switch schools often.

Read More
827 Words | 4 Pages

American Born Chinese is a story about Jin, an American with Chinese roots, who struggles with his identity - self-conscious about how he looks, sounds, and acts. Jin divides into three different identities; Jin his overall identity, Danny his typical American side, and Chin-Kee his racist stereotype Chinese side. This book is split into three different stories that represent the three different identities, The Monkey King’s story, Jin’s story, and Danny and Chin-Kee’s story. In the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang uses symbolism and literary elements to illustrate struggling with your identity can lead to a better understanding of who you are and where you came from. Jin is faced with racial discrimination, not fitting

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “The Handsomest Drowned man” shows a broader development of identity through a society. One of the important characters in the “The Chinese Seamstress” is the narrator, who is not only vital because he is the main character but also because he goes through a lot of development and evolution based of the narratives he reads. Four eyes, the narrators friend, had a stash of foreign books that he had received from his mother that were banned

Read More
2051 Words | 9 Pages

Vizzini reviewed American born Chinese and he also agrees that Identity is the heart of the book. He starts by talking about how Yang used Chin Kee to express his deepest fears of how others perceive Asian Americans. In the book 's more realistic sections, Wang 's friend Wei Chen is embarrassingly fresh off the boat ; Chin Kee is less embarrassing than monstrous. He comes to the United States for a visit with Danny, his blond, blue eyed cousin, and enters with a shout of "Harro Amellica!" Which gives a bad impression of how Asians act when they come to a new country. Chin Kee himself is the reaction of his American peers.

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

MEMOIR: INTERVIEW WILLIAM WU I 'm a first generation Asian-American. I was born in Lima, Peru, right before my parents came to America from China, and we moved to America when I was one. Growing as a first generation American, my parents worked a lot. I can 't say that I wasn 't loved, but my bond with my parents was weak because I was always home alone, being babysat by others, or going out because they had to work.

Read More
982 Words | 4 Pages

Point of View on Culture     Among many literatures about Asian and Chinese culture “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai is one.   This short story is about a young girl, Nea, and her sister, Sourdi, and what happens when Sourdi grows up when Nea does not want her to. Their family are Chinese and they moved to America.

Read More
1025 Words | 5 Pages

The Power of Identity Despite varying circumstances, both visually and contextually, the theme portraying that extreme measures are often taken when others are not accepting of an identity is developed by actions in American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. In the beginning of the book, The Monkey King is more or less serene and collected. At first the book shows some scenes on pages 10 and 11, where he is training peaceful, simple disciplines, and as stated on page 10, “The monkey king ruled with a firm but gentle hand.”

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

Arriving at the party for all the Gods, the Monkey King had tried to get in. However, the Gods laugh at him and kick him out because he isn’t wearing shoes and he he 's a monkey. Due to the conflict at the party, readers question what the Monkey King will do next after he is humiliated and kicked out. The author effectively uses this plot element because it is made clear that the Monkey King did not belong with the Gods and the conflict makes readers want to keep reading to find out what happens.

Read More
1225 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

Read More
723 Words | 3 Pages

In American Born Chinese, Jin Wang changes immensely from the beginning to the end of the story. At the beginning of the story, Jin Wang wants to fit in and break apart from his Chinese Heritage. By the end of the story, because of various external and internal conflicts, Jin has learned to accept his Chinese heritage. He has also experienced anger, happiness, regret, and guilt that all got him to the point where he learned to accept his heritage.

Read More
1031 Words | 5 Pages

Personal Statement I would like to confirm that it is my motivating of Chinese culture that ignited my passion for cultural and creative industry. As a Tourism Management major student, I was able to explore the Chinese diversified cultures and landscapes, which offered me an insightful understanding of the Chinese cultural development. Under the guidance of commercialization, some cultural heritages have developed into huge tourism souvenir markets full of counterfeit and shoddy products. The over-commercialization reveals the fact that the Chinese culture is facing a severe situation. The country calls for a better cultural development strategy, which cultural and creative industry can offer.

Read More

More about American Born Chinese Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document