American Born Chinese By Gene Luen Yang

As of January 1st, 2024, around 8.1 billion people live around the world. Every single person is unique, with different cultures, traditions, and ultimately, identities. Even though every person in this world is different, so many people want to be like others. Their identities blend and blur in their attempt to change. In “American Born Chinese”, a graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang, many of its characters, though unique in their own ways, want to belong and want to modify or even alter who they are. Many negative experiences the characters face in “American Born Chinese” reflect the theme of how wanting to belong and be accepted can change how one perceives their own identity and how it can affect one’s relationships. This is evident

His dismissal from the dinner party causes him to decide that he needs to change himself to be accepted and belong to others. He took a lot of his time mastering all of the disciplines and became larger in form to make sure that the other gods, goddesses, demons, and spirits alike respected him. However, this changed the way he views himself, and it changed the relationships he had within his kingdom. He not only disassociated himself from his “Monkey King” title, but also with all the other monkeys. Danny, who is revealed to have lived as Jin, tries to escape his past, wanting to fit in and be seen as equal, however, he struggles because he is shamed by his cousin. Danny’s cousin is visiting America from China for a few weeks, and Danny is forced to accompany him. However, Danny is humiliated by him and can’t stand being around him. When he approaches his crush, Melanie, she turns him down lightly, but Danny thinks it’s because of his cousin. He explains to Melanie, “I’m not like him, Melanie.I’m nothing like him! I don’t even know how we’re related!” (Yang 123). Even though Danny’s cousin isn’t the cause of Melanie’s rejection, Danny thinks he