Analysis: American Born Chinese By Gene Luen Yang

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

It doesn’t matter what kind of ethnicity you are, or how you were brought up. Everyone is deeply rooted in their own culture. “Culture” has a different meaning to everyone. Comparing American culture to Chinese culture we will find many different meanings to the word “culture”. For example, we Americans are always looking for something bigger and better for our future, and the Chinese are content with a small reserved lifestyle with no intentions of changing it for something bigger. A culture is a way of life of a group of people-the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and are passed along by communication and imitation from

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

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.

Fae Myenne Ng is a contemporary Chinese-American author who is known for her first written novel, Bone. Her debut novel was published in 1993 and the story is told through the eyes of the main character, Leila Leong. Leila tells the story of her family’s history and the events that unfold following the suicide of her sister. As Leila’s story progresses, themes of identity and family life are revealed. Leila and her two sisters border the line between American and Chinese, two distinct cultures that belong to very different worlds. The sisters deal with the struggles of assimilation as they grow up in the seclusive community of Chinatown only to live in an American world. The family life of the Leong

After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing

In order to escape this harsh environment Bruce Lee’s parents decided to immigrate to the United States when he was in his teens. Even though Lee was technically born in the United States, he was still deemed by all as Asian-American. Similar to his identity in Chinatown (San Francisco), even though Lee was, by paper, American, his heart and culture remained Asian. Chinatown served a perfect fit for the Lee family because of the town’s high concentration of Asian-Americans, traditional festivals, and ethnic

Frank Chin has been the most vocal critic of Kingston's who accused her "of reinforcing white fantasies about Chinese Americans" (Chin, 1991) and claimed that writers like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and David Henry Hwang who won approval of the American white readers deliberately distorted the image of Chinese American to reinforce stereotypes and cater to the fantasies of American readers about a traditionalist Chinese culture. (Frank Chin, 1991, pp. 3-29)

To some people this is not be viewed as a stereotype due to the fact it is not instantly perceived as “negative”; for those readers who delve in deeper, this stereotype outlines the educational daily hidden pressure of people from Chinese descent whom do not fit this “positive” stereotype. Every day, especially in American society, classmates look to their Asian counterparts to provide the answers to questions they do not know in every subject they take. Nonetheless, this ridiculous assumption hurts the Asian students that do not feel comfortable with their intellectual abilities. Placing Asian students as the “model student” excludes the students who actually have problems and need help that other classmates are reluctant to give the students simply because their classmates do not view helping their struggling Asian classmates as an actual necessity. By “poking” fun and bringing into light both Asian stereotypes, Yang enforces view that stereotypes are in use today.

     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,

Chinese-Americans are a huge group in the Unite State that most of them lived in New Yoke and California. Ever since the California Gold Rush (1848-1855), enormous Chinese went to California for gold digging. After that, more and more Chinese immigrated to the U.S. for work. At first, they worked in the gold mine, and then they went on factories to seek more opportunities, especially garment factory. These Chinese need money for their families which still stay in China and waiting for them. However, this had aroused the resentful of those non-Chinese labors. At 1882, Unite State

When I meet someone new, this was the typical conversation. At the age of 5, I knew I was different from the other children in my kindergarten class - especially since I attend a private catholic school. My appearance consists of monochrome colors; black hair, black eyes, and pale white skin. My image is rather dull compared to the blonde hair, blue eyed girls that automatically fit in anywhere. In addition to my appearance, my lack of ability to speak or understand English made me feel even more out of place. I eventually picked up enough English by 1st grade to “blend in” with my classmates.

In American Born Chinese and in Persepolis, both protagonists hate their nationality and wish they were normal. Being a minority can be difficult at times. Sometimes, minorities are looked down upon and just wish that they could be normal like the rest of the people they are surrounded by. In Persepolis, Satrapi was asked what race she was and lied in response to gain others respect and to be seen as an equal. In the graphic novel, the panel used at this time shows tense emotions by the action lines seen and the facial expressions. When she lies, the entire background is black and she looks sad. Satrapi does not maintain eye contact when she lied because she was embarrassed and knew she made a mistake. With the gutters between the scenes, we can assume how she is feeling after lying. Occasionally, ignorant people will assume that you are just like your race. In Satrapi’s case, people would see her as a terrorist. Satrapi lied so that the boy she liked would view her as a normal person, not just some terrorist. In American Born Chinese, Jin Wang also denied his nationality to be seen as normal by society. When Wang was introduced to class, a boy made a joke saying, “Don’t you people eat dogs?”. Racism due to being a minority can affect how much one wants to express their culture. If people are intolerant of others, they have a tendency to hide their culture. Wang was also classmates with a another Asian girl, which he never talked to because his classmates would make racist jokes about arranged marriages. When another Asian boy was introduced to the class, Wang wanted to hit him because he fit the stereotypes of the Asian culture. He was depicted wearing glasses, dressing in horrendous clothing, having an accent, and having squinty eyes. Wang did not want to associate with the new kid. When the new kid spoke the Chinese language, Wang was mad. His eyebrows were squinted and he told him “You’re in America. Speak English.” In general, both the protagonist from the stories hid their nationalism so that they would not be picked on. They both need to accept their nationalism in order to mature. In both graphic novels, both protagonists, Wang and Satrapi, want to fit in with white America. Satrapi spends a good