American Born Chinese (2006)
By: Gene Luen Yang.
In American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, the story is viewed through three main character's points of view, Jin Wang, Wei-Chen Sun and The Monkey King. American Born Chinese tells the background story of each of these characters as well as how their relationships collaborate with others. While each character does have their differences, they also have their similarities, as seen through various scenes in the comic.
One similarity is that they were accepted by people who were like them; who had a similar appearance to them, basically people who were the same ethnicity as them. However, they were rejected and discriminated by others who were not of their ethnicity. One example is when The Monkey King was not allowed to attend a dinner party that he was looking forward to. The guard first said he was not allowed in because he had no shoes but later the true reason came out that it wasn't because The Monkey King didn't have shoes. It was because regardless if he was royalty, he was "still a monkey"(Yang, 15).
Jin Wang was also discriminated by the people surrounding him. Although, his family accepted him and their ethnicity, Jin's classmates and teacher discriminated him by spreading rumors about him marrying a fellow Asian student in their class, accusing him of eating dogs and even calling him rude names like "Buck-Tooth" (Yang, 33). His classmates alienated themselves from him including the other Asian student, Suzy Nakamura, assumingly because of the rumor spread about them. One classmate did associate with him, Peter Garbinsky, nicknamed by his peers as "Peter The Eater" (Wang, 34). Peter's relationship with Jin could be seen as abusive, as portrayed in the images when Peter would play games with Jin such as "Crack The Whip" and "Kill The Pill" (Wang, 35).
When Peter left to live with his father, Jin was once again isolated from his fellow schoolmates until Wei-Chen Sun arrived. At first, Jin disliked him, treating him coldly as the same way his classmates treated him. Jin also had the urge to beat Wei-Chen up.
Later, Jin realized that he and Wei-Chen were more alike than he had thought. They both were introduced to their classmates in a similar way but they both also liked robot toys. Because of their common interest, it helped them to bond and form a friendship.
Another character who shared similarities and differences to Jin Wang, Wei-Chen Sun and The Monkey King was Chin-Kee. He was also looked down upon for being different and was even accused of having S.A.R.S., when a man claimed that Chin-Kee's spit got on him, most likely from Chin-Kee's spit flying out of his mouth in a scene where he sings the song She Bang by Ricky Martin loudly at a library (Wang, 203). Even Chin-Kee's cousin, Danny showed hostility towards him and takes it out in a violent way.
Eventually, it comes out that Chin-Kee is actually The Monkey King in disguise and Danny is actually Jin Wang. The Monkey King thanks Jin for treating his son, Wei-Chen Sun well while he was on his quest to become an emissary like his father. Later, Jin finds Wei-Chen, tells him about him meeting his father as the story ends with the two rekindling their friendship at a local restaurant.
I feel that readers can relate to the characters in this comic if they have ever been outcasted, criticized or ridiculed for being different than others. Lots of people can relate to the characters if they were ever bullied just because they didn't look, dress or act like everyone else. Many even try to change who they are to try and fit in so they will be accepted like Jin did when he became Danny. They will try to change anything they can to fit in whether it be the clothes they wear or their hairstyle or even pretending to like things they are not truly interested in or pretending to dislike things they actually love. Although people continue to do this nowadays to fit in, I personally believe people should embrace their differences. It is what makes you unique and the people who truly care about you will accept you for it.
Works Cited:
Wang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. 2006.
Hello Ashley, I agree with what you say about people getting the short end of the stick who are different. When I read the comic it seems all I could think about throughout it was how sad it is that people have to suffer just because they are different. I remember when I was a child my dad was catholic and my mom was not. In my fifth grade year my dad decided to place me in a private catholic school. I was so ousted because I was not baptized catholic. In catholic school we would attend mass every Wednesday. During the service I was not permitted to take communion because I was “an outsider” and I can remember how embarrassing it was to sit in the pew while all my classmates were going to the front to receive the communion. My religious background hindered me from getting friends and being part of the community being educated in. It got so to the point that my family and I decided it was time for me to become catholic.
ReplyDeleteI have a personal appreciation for the things you have written in your blog. Some of the things you said brought back so many memories of the beginning years of my catholic school experience and this is why I decided to comment on your blog. Besides all that you are my research partner and no one has commented on you post yet and we cannot have that haha. Thank you for your blog post I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for commenting my blog. I am sorry you had to go through all of that in Catholic school. I know what it was like to feel different too and I definitely know what it's like for people to meanly judge just because you aren't like them and have different interests than they do or look/act different than them. It's sad to hear that kind of bullying is still going on today and I truly think it has got worse over the years since now kids are posting stuff about other kids online to hurt them.
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