“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success,

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

Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her

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

In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American,

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

With working hard, comes compassion and lessons learned. In both stories, we see a big similarity- tough love and lessons learned. In “Fish Cheeks” by Amy tan we see this in a silent lesson. As they invite the ministers family over for Christmas Eve dinner, the mother has a treat for them. They are a chinese family and they don’t celebrate it with the old fashioned turkey and mashed potatoes, which the daughter, Amy, is nervous about for she has a major crush on the minister's son. She becomes embarrassed about her heritage and says, “I wanted to disappear” (Tan). Towards the end of the story, when the minister’s family leaves, the mother pulls Amy aside and states, “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.. But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” and response to her mother, Amy agrees when she writes, “And even though I didn’t agree with

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.

Jia Jiang introduced the audience his motion of 100 days of rejection, a “Rejection Therapy”, which was invested by the Canadian entrepreneur, Jason Comely. The basic idea of Rejection Therapy is for 100 days, you go out and look for rejection and every day get rejected by something, you desensitize yourself from the pain by the end. What’s more, he talked a lot about the reason makes the strangers reject his asking. For example, one day, Jia Jiang went to a stranger’s house with a flower in his hand and he asking for planting the flower in the stranger’s backyard. He was rejected but that’s because the stranger has a dog and he did not want Jia Jiang’s flower dug by this dog. Therefore, it was because what he offered does not fit what the stranger

“Rules of the Game” written by Amy Tan is a short story that focuses on the conflict in identity that Chinese Americans face when growing up with influences from both the cultures. The physical and social settings of “Rules of the Game” create an atmosphere which helps to bring out the true essence of the story. Amy Tan’s “The

In the story “Two Kinds”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

In the “Two Kinds” story the author illustrates the struggle between her American cultural identity, and her mother’s Chinese culture, as like the characters in the story. The author shows what is the struggle and the conflict that cultural differences creates. The author also uses symbolism, to address the conflicts between the characters in the story.

Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.

　　　　On March 4, in 2007, I was staring into the unnecessarily broad dome of　Makuhari Messe with intermingled feelings. My partner and I missed the first prize at the national ballroom dancing competition, which meant we would never be the champion at this competition. My partner was 11 years old, two years older than me, and would miss the qualification to take part in the juvenile section the following March. Of course, I was happy about the testimony we received, however, the six letters of the word second bore on me heavily. Why could we not win the first prize?