American Born Chinese Character Analysis

Some similar anecdotes that I can contribute to “The Chinese in All of Us” are similar experiences that I went through and having friends and acquaintance going through the same process of becoming the melting pot of

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

Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.

In 1998, Eric Liu wrote a book about his struggle with acculturation titled “The Accidental Asian”. A chapter within the book called “Notes of a Native Speaker” depicts an essay written by Liu which fully describes his struggles with race and how he overcame them. Eric Liu is an American born Taiwanese Asian. His parents immigrated to the United States before he was born and in so, gave him a mixed cultural background. He started becoming a writer after attending Yale University and graduating from Harvard Law School. In his “Notes of a Native Speaker” author Eric Liu argues that as he was “becoming white” he was achieving, learning the ways of the upper

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.

A world once filled with Asian friends and neighbors crashes harshly as Jin is left stranded in a white dominated school. Stereotypes and teasing are quickly placed on him from his racial background. Still new to the area, Jin presumes, “The only other Asian in my class was Suzy Nakamura. When the class finally figured out that we weren’t related, rumors began to circulate that Suzy and I were arranged to be married on her thirteenth birthday. We avoided each other as much as possible” (Yang 31). Embarrassment clouds Jin as he realizes that he’s not like the other kids in his class. With distinct features and his native tongue, Jin felt like a reject surrounded by his Caucasian classmates. He was entirely alone amongst his peers, and he didn’t like that one single bit. In this way, it’s clear how both Junior and Jin felt like outcasts in these two oceans of white students and teachers.

When Loung starts her first day of school, she is excited because she had spent most of her summer watching T.V and learning new words every day. She hopes that it would be enough to help her make some new friends. She imagines herself with friends that have blonde and brown hair. “I just know that if I'm friends with them, I’ll be normal and happy too!” (Ung 59) Loung doesn't want Asian friends, she believes that if all her friends were Asian she will be seen as someone who is an outcast and is not open to being friends with any other race. Loung sees Caucasian as the dominant race in America and if she can make friends with them, she can blend in with the common people of America.Heading to school with the typical pink dress and barbie backpack that she has seen the other neighborhood girls wearing, Loung enters her classroom with an optimistic mindset, but that all comes to a complete halt when she sees the frowns and glares of her classmates. When her teacher begins to tell the class to open up their notebooks and journal what they did for the summer Loung is very confused because these words were not said on the T.V. In order not to avoid looking like a fool she copies the little girl next to her. Loung copied the girl next to her because this moment was the pivotal moment she could show her teachers and classmates that she was just as American as them. Once the teacher realized that Loung

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.

Based on all the reactions on page 96, all the friends already felt somewhat ashamed of their culture, which made the comment even more hard to hear. It’s one thing to have a rude comment when you’re confidant, but another when you already feel insecure. The comment makes you believe the comments, regardless of how true or untrue. From previous experiences, Jin, Suzy, and Wei-Chen must feel some bit of insecurity around being Asian, even though that isn’t a bad thing. They got this insecurity from comments similar to the ones stated.

     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,

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.

In the play “Trying to Find Chinatown”, David Hwang makes it possible to turn Asian stereotypes backwards. Benjamin, a Caucasian from the mid west, and Ronnie, an ethnic Chinese from New York City, are both "Chinese" differently: Ronnie is genetically and ethically Chinese; Benjamin is Chinese because he has been raised by Chinese parents, since he was adopted as an infant and nurtured in a Chinese household. Truth being, one can discuss that Benjamin, rather than Ronnie, shows more stereotypical "Chinese" attributes than Ronnie does.

Happily scooting around on a playground, an angelic-looking four-year old Luke is suddenly bombarded with screams out of nowhere. “You’re Chinese. You’re Chinese!” His face is already white and frowning with suffering. It does not matter that his “skin is fair, and his features mixed, people see his straight black hair and ‘know’ who he is.” In An Ethnic Trump, Gish Jen, a Chinese mother, describes her son Luke, a half Chinese half Irish boy, and his experiences as he encounters bullies as a biracial child. Why does he, one of millions of biracial or mixed race population, end up with the same racism as other minorities? The answer may reside within his ambiguous identity, perhaps even seeded at a very young age.