American Born Chinese Character Analysis

THESIS - When evaluating Arnold “Junior” Spirit from Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Jin Wang from Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, similarities radiate in both characters as their disparity in race deem the two of them as outcasts in the entirety of society. In addition to their lack of social interactions, their uniformity in their impulsive decisions cost them each a dear friend. Although Junior and Jin are quite similar, they share differences in the way Junior tries bettering himself by fitting into both his Indian and Reardan culture whereas Jin changes himself in every possible way to become Americanized.

Hung conveys a lack of identity through her sad expression and highlights the conflict between individualism and tradition through the contrast in color. Growing up in an Asian family myself, I personally understand how one’s culture can be restricting. Asian culture in general can be quite strict and this portrait expresses an idea that I believe many young Asian-Americans can relate to. In most cases, Asian parents adhere to older traditions and enforce them on their children, ultimately limiting the extent of their individuality. For example, Asian culture promotes perfectionism in which we need to be the best in everything from academics to athletics. However perfectionism leaves no room for uniqueness and ultimately leaves an individual bland. Hung’s portrait captures this idea perfectly as her black and white profile resembles someone who was brought up to be “perfect” and thus lacks any kind of characteristics that would make her unique. As a result, she looks on to the possibilities of creativity and imagination, anything that would make her stand out. Consequently, she could have created this self-portrait to highlight her struggle against strict Chinese culture. Hung intended to show how she was held back from creative expression and thus conveys how she had no sense of identity. Essentially, creative expression is a crucial way in which someone can

Gene Luen Yang, the author who wrote American Born Chinese, hopes to create a sense of belonging for those who have been marginalized in American society by telling his story. During his lecture, he makes a point that “Comics [can] handle sophisticated material in sophisticated ways” which is why he chose to write American Born Chinese in a graphic novel format. American Born Chinese is about a character named Jin Wang and his experience growing up in

Immediately from the beginning the book leads us on with the Monkey King to overcome the challenge of getting accepted to a dinner party. The Monkey King is almost exactly of what one might but with a twist. He’s a regular monkey with a little bit more to offer to the world. He possess leadership, and understands many skills worthy to be a ruler, and becomes little out of hand when he gets upset. A prime example of this is when he attempted to prove the guard that he was well worthy of entering the dinner party. The Monkey King tried to persuade the guard by stating “I am the sovereign ruler of flower-fruit mountain” in order for the guard to understand that this little monkey wasn’t so little (14). The Monkey King even laid out his credentials for the worthy disciplines he mastered. This was a great challenge the Monkey King did since it involved thousands of minor disciplines and four major disciplines. This all tells me that this monkey was no ordinary monkey, but a

However, as their early relationship continued, Shen Fu found that Yün was able to analyze and debate literature and poetry with him. (Fu: 31) Shen Fu soon realized that Yün was as capable as he was, but held back by their society. He recounts a time

Gene Luen Yang’s writing style in his graphic novel, American Born Chinese, demonstrate great technique of suspense and foreshadowing. Yang grew up with two parents who were an electrical engineer from Taiwan and a programmer who grew up in Hong Kong and Taiwan, both of whom emigrated to the United States. His experiences follow this book’s plot and his writing style follows exactly how he may have felt during that part of his life. His parents helped give him a strong work ethic and reinforced their Asian culture to make sure he was never ashamed of where he came from.

Could you take a guess and tell from what culture a person is from by just listening to their voice? Could you also tell by looking to their appearance; The way they dress, the color of their skin, facial features? What about the way they carry their selves? Just like “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez where he explains that he feels connected to all the cultures around America, with its “culture, a sound, an accent, a walk.” (Rodriguez 730). It does not mean and require that you must look a certain way to belong to a certain culture.

Jin Wang was born in America but is also Chinese. He faces some difficulties with racism and stereotypes as he grows up. He just moved to a new school from San Francisco. The teacher introduces him to the class and says,” Class, I'd like us all to give a warm Mayflower Elementary welcome to your new friend and Classmate Jin Wang...He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!”(30). Jin has this look on his face of annoyance. Like, did she actually say this. She is too ignorant to ask so she just assumed that since he is Chinese, that he must be from China. He was born in America. This just shows how ignorant people are about other cultures. It makes it even harder to fit in if people don't even care where you're from and just make assumptions. Jin now experiences this first hand. He tries so hard to fit in and be normal. He goes as far as changing his hair to match the guys hair that Amelia likes. When he isn't noticed as much he wants to become someone else, someone who will fit in. He wakes up in the morning a new person, as he has transformed into someone he is not, he thinks to himself,”A new face deserved a new name. I decided to call myself...Danny”(198). He changed his race he didn't like his heritage and cultures so much

Stories and stereotypes make many people want to change themselves negatively and assimilate just to fit in with society. As time passes, society’s stereotypes for how people of each race should be, which race is more dominant than others, and which race you should be, all play a role in impacting someone’s self-esteem and their insecurities. This is portrayed through Jin Wang, a main character in Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” when Jin Wang thinks his crush, Amelia, he instantly becomes happy. But then he thinks about Greg and Amelia together and gets mad. He finally zooms into Greg’s blond hair. The next day he goes to school with the same hairstyle. The hair symbolizes Greg’s all American identity because the stereotypical American is portrayed with blond hair and blue eyes. To Jin Wang, this hair symbolizes what he wants to be, so he changed his hair to an “American” hairstyle to get Amelia to like him. Due to stereotypes about how Americans are suppose to look like, Jin Wang feels insecure about himself and wants to change his identity and himself as well to assimilate into American culture and stereotypes. These stereotypes and the Anti-Asian stereotypes impact Jin Wang greatly and make him hate himself as well as his background and where he came from because he believes that in order to be AMerica, you have to be white. Another way that this is portrayed is from a personal experience I had as a kid. Growing up as an Asian kid in America, I didn’t really know

While reading through different non-fiction essays, one that left a great impact on my thoughts was “I’m a Banana and Proud of It” by Wayson Choy. Choy gives his story as a North American citizen with a Chinese background. Families pushed for their children to belong in North America, causing children to be labelled as “Bananas” for being “yellow on the outside and white on the inside” (Choy); a term to describe people in Choy’s generation who assimilated very well into the American culture. Many teenagers like him were attracted to the American culture and strayed from their Chinese culture. Although at the same time, they didn’t feel like they belonged as an American due to looking Chinese. People had difficulties placing themselves in one

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection,”Henry J.M Houwen once stated. In the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Jin Wang and the monkey king experiences rejection as they interact with society. In the short story Linh Lai by Rebecca Rosenblum, Linh Lai helplessly suffers rejection as she struggles to meet her uncle and Mr. Koenburg’s expectations. In the short story Tapka by David Bezomozgis, people are rejected because of their differences. Rejection by society exists in Tapka and Linh Lai, whereas American Born Chinese incorporates both rejections by themselves and by society. Stories show that people are rejected by society,

Many new arrivals still struggle to survive and often Chinese Americans still encounter suspicion and hostility. Chinese Americans have achieved great success and now, like so many others, they are stitching together a new American identity. As Michelle Ling, a young Chinese American, tells Bill Moyers in Program 3, “I get to compose my life one piece at a time, however I feel like it. Not to say that it’s not difficult and that there isn’t challenge all the time, but more than material wealth, you get to choose what you are, who you are.” (www.pbs.org)

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

     The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,

already achieve his goal to be a king, he begins to be greedier to not