What Are The Similarities Between Fish Cheeks And American Born Chinese

A similarity noticed was the main topic of each story. Each express their view and their experience living in America. Both being girls living in an American society. Both talking about their American identity while being a mix of different ethnicities.

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.

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

Believe it or not, but American and Chinese culture do have something’s in common. They see eye-to-eye on some aspects. Like providing for their children “Parents work together for the well-being of their children” [Example from Article]. It is true that parents do the best they can to work towards a better financial life for their kids. That’s why many Chinese parents come over to the states, so that they can provide a better life, and a better education. They would also go to great lengths for their children no matter what the cause “Parents will risk their life for their children” [Example from Article]. Any parent would risk their life for their children no matter what ethnicity, or cultural aspect! There is no bond like a parent and their child.

Another Similarity both articles share is in their purpose. Both “Fish Cheeks” and Museum” are entertaining stories that each have an overarching life lesson not directly stated in each. “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan teaches the reader to never forget your upbringings, and the importance of family and heritage. Tan highlights this in her writing by entertaining the reader with a fun and short story from her past about an old crush and family embarrassment.

Cultural differences are apparent from one group of people to another. Culture is based on many things that are passed on from one generation to the next. Most of the time people take for granted their language, beliefs, and values. When it comes the cultural differences of people there is no right or wrong. People should be aware of others culture and respect the differences that are between them. The United States and China are two very large countries that have cultures that are well known through out the world. There are many differences between the United States and China, but there are many contributing factors that shape the cultures of these two countries.

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

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.

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.

“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,

In the article,” Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," author Amy Chua describes how parenting is approached in Chinese culture as compared to "Western parents." She compares Western and Chinese parents on how they approach their children’s' upbringings. She gives examples from her experiences raising her own daughters. Chua's daughters were not allowed to attend sleepovers and could not score grades any lower than an "A" in school classes. Chua also forced her kids in learning a piece for the piano. In separate story, author Amy Tan discusses the mother-daughter relationship in Chinese-American culture in "Two Kinds." This story is told from the viewpoint of an American-born Chinese girl named Jing-mei. Her immigrant mother, Mrs. Woo, believes that being in America is freedom and wants her daughter to take advantage of that freedom. Her mother has her try several activities in an attempt to

The writers also focus on different point in their stories. “Mother Tongue” focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her

The third most important aspect in her metamorphosis in to “being Chinese” is tasting authentic Chinese food. Jing-mei is excited to taste the food showing her internal yearning to understand her heritage. She experiences true Chinese hoisin sauce. Now that she has tasted foods that seems common to Chinese people Jing-mei connects more with the culture. She feels more Chinese than

The biographical connection that the author “Amy Tan” draws in her short story “Two Kinds” with her main character Jing-mei, crosses in more than one side. First of all, they both are Chinese American whose struggle in their identities with their Chinese immigrant mothers. “Due to a cultural conflict and lack of proper understanding of each other’s perceptions” (Priya 1), and as a big gap developed between the two daughters and their two mothers, in which resulted a complex relationship between them.