Have you ever heard of a character in a book that is so obnoxious that he barges into a house and screams “Hello America”? Chances are you haven’t, unless you’ve read the awful book, American Born Chinese. In my opinion, the character Chin Kee is a bad addition to the book, who is Chin Kee you ask? Only one of the worst characters in all of history! The point of this essay is to inform you why Chin Kee is a terrible character. Now, who is this character?
Chin Kee is a kind of immigrant/traveller, he comes to America to go to school each year with his cousin Danny, he is originally from China, apparently, Danny is related to Chin Kee, but we don’t discover how (or maybe how not) until the end of the book. Anyways, Chin Kee arrives in America and meets with Danny, this is when he utters his famous words “Hello America”. Chin Kee
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Well aside from their both being Chinese, Chin Kee is obviously more flawed than Jin, he is obnoxious and can be very annoying at times. There are even more passages from the text, like (Teacher) “Oh Romeo, oh Romeo.” (Chin Kee) “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” This is from the chapter where Chin Kee constantly annoys Danny by answering all of the questions the teacher asks, this is also a racist Asian stereotype, as in they are so smart that they get all the questions right. Another example is (Teacher) “The Nina, the Pinta and the?” (Chin Kee) “Santa Malia!”. Chin kee is an overall racist stereotype of an Asian person. I’m not sure why they would include the racist stereotype, other to make Chin Kee appear more annoying, disturbing and obnoxious. Unlike Jin, Chin Kee is annoying, although Jin is much easier to anger and has a short temper, while Chin Kee takes a while to anger and gives sufficient warning, as read in the final chapters. So, both characters have their differences, and in the end Jin caves in to his anger and learns that he shouldn’t just try to be someone else, but instead to be
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
Mistakes are often essential factors of one’s wisdom and future success. People can always gain precious life lessons from their flaws, which resemble the pebbles that make a stable and perfect road. In the novel Typical American written by Gish Jen, the protagonist, Ralph Chang, makes a mistake in which he shifts and tortures his original American dream to a false and ‘poisonous’ dream that causes his ultimate familial, moral and financial collapse; in other words, he fails to create a ‘China’ with traditional values in America. However, he actually becomes more mature after gaining a valuable lesson from his flaws. Because of his excessive pride and confidence, Ralph is considered a tragic hero as he commits the tragic flaws that lead to
In the “Autobiography of a Chinese immigrant” written in 1903 by Lee Chew, dialogues about his point of view
Henry was born and raised in the United States. When he was twelve years old, he was “scholarshipping” in Rainier Elementary School, a “top white school” (Ford, 183). As the war progressed between Japan and America, his parents were desperate for him to become more “American”. As a result, they insisted for him “to stop speaking their native Chinese” and become fluent in English (Ford, 12). However, this created a problem, because Henry’s parents could not speak English, and they scolded him if he spoke Cantonese to them. Due to this, Henry had a difficult time conversing with his parents, which means that they rarely spoke with each other. Although his parents forced him to only speak English for his own safety, it ended up isolating Henry from his own family. They obviously could not form a close family relationship if they did not communicate with one another. Moreover, Henry befriending Keiko made the situation worse. His father could not accept the fact that his only son became friends with a Japanese girl.
Do you think it would make a difference if you didn’t include the character of Chin-kee? I think if I didn’t included the character Chin- Kee It wouldn’t be so powerful and emotional in the text.
for quite some time; she had obtained the boons many, many years back when Śambarāsura was killed. Couldn’t she have asked for the boons all those days? She asked them on My sake. rājyāt bhraṁśaḥ – she asked for Me but at the same time, she asked for herself. How prejudicial this is? What an ordeal this has been?!
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.
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
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.
Frank Chin is considered to be one of the pioneers in Asian American theatre. In his work, he mainly depicts the effects of human stereotyping. His vision on the fate of Chinese Americans works as a background to his depiction of individuals and their families who are damaged by the roles that they are forced to play in white America’s society. The particularity of Chin’s work is that he stresses the great damage of preconceived opinion more on the relations between family members than on the individual mind.
The Term “yellow” is ironically crucial to the reader’s perception of why the main character, Danny, is so fearful of his ethnic identity. Even though Danny cannot escape his “Korean-ness”, he instinctively insists upon rejecting his ethnicity, pursuing a “colorless”, life in America. Don Lee’s short story, “yellow”, illuminates the struggle of Danny, whom like many later generational Asian Americans attempts to assimilate into overall American culture, only to be constantly rejected. One’s ability to consume and digest this cultural dismissal can determine their ultimate mindset, this concept is highlighted by the conversation between Danny and his wife Rachel, “No stereotype is innocent” (Danny to Rachel), she replies, “Racism’s not the problem. It’s you” (pg. 249). In this instance, it can be realized that it is both society’s as well as Danny’s perception of his Asian identity that are misguided. Due to American society’s racial insensitivity, Danny finds himself filled with paranoia, unable to trust those around um, and even himself. It is only through eventful encounters/relationships that Danny may overcome his fear of “yellow”, seeing not only color but the humanity behind it.
I think Chin-Kee was an exaggerated representation of his cultural heritage. By this, I mean the author wants to get the point across of where he’s from, but also use the characters to show how some other people saw him. The main point is that part of him is in the stereotype, being Chin-Kee but to use that to represent his entire being would be wrong. I think the end of the book can easily be over interpreted, because in my opinion, the main reason the video reference was at the end of the book was to be funny, but there was another reason to. If you notice, Jin’s hair is straight in the drawing, this shows it’s after him and Jin had already made up.
Mark Twain and Maxine Hong Kingston are both influential writers when it comes to the history of the Chinese Immigrants. Bother of them showed a great amount of detail on their journey to America. Mark Twain actually pities the “friendless Mongol,” there were many superficial stereotypes of the Chinese immigrants (Ou 33). Twain ridicules the American’s racist attitudes against the Chinese. For example, in Roughing It, he wrote,
I found this reading quite interesting, last semester I took a history class and we went into Chinese American history. We didn’t go too in-depth in the class and this reading opened up more experience and what it was like to be a Chinese American in the 19th century. One thing I learned from this reading in the “Ah Quin Diary” was how poorly the Chinese were treated by white people. In one part of the diary Ah Quin mentions how he fell into a hole and his watch got wet and when he went to the boss, the boss laughed at him. Not only that but in another section of the diary he talks about the disturbing conditions of living, Ah Quin briefly mentions how he was unable to sleep because bug would bite and crawl all over him at night. Another thing
Han Kang’s use of comparison between two closely related but very different characters demonstrates society’s definition of a dutiful wife. Unable to withstand the embarrassment of having a wife he is not proud of, he leaves her. Han Kang used the sense of pressure to depict not only the public opinion, but also the force that drives Mr. Cheong’s actions.