I started this graphic novel thinking to myself, "This just looks like another dumb teen comic book." ...how wrong I was! Yeah I hear you - never judge a book by its cover. Point taken.
At first, it appears to the reader that the novel is actually comprised of three seemingly disjoint tales. One about the monkey king of Flower Fruit Mountain, another about Jin Wang (American born Chinese), and a third about Danny, an all-American teenager.
However, the author weaves the three stories together at the end of the novel - quite profoundly, I might add.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. One of the themes I saw throughout the entire novel was peer acceptance and going to great lengths to change oneself for the sake of assimilation. The monkey king, embarrassed by the fact that he was a monkey, sets out to prove to the gods that he is indeed worthy of being included in their festivities. He forces himself to go through mastering the twelve major disciplines of Kung-fu, just to be accepted by the gods. Jin Wang spends most of his time trying to fit in. When he meets Wei-Chen Sun, he tells him (rather rudely) to speak English, even though it's really tough for Wei-Chen. Jin also changes his appearance to look less ethnic in order to get the attention of the girl he likes. Danny is completely disgusted by the behavior of his cousin, Chin-Kee, the "ultimate negative Chinese stereotype." Danny hates the attention he gets because of Chin-Kee and just wants to fit in with his peers.
The issues each of the main characters is having are extremely relevant to today's teens. Most adolescents just want to be socially accepted. They are worried about standing out and deathly afraid of having a negative spotlight put on them. I think Yang depicts this mindset very accurately in American Born Chinese. He does a great job of bringing a fresh perspective to the adolescent experience by digging into the inner struggles of a young Chinese-American boy.
One of the things that really stood out to me while reading was Danny's story. I laughed out loud when Chin-Kee made his flamboyant entrance, but soon I saw everything his character represents. I think many times, no matter how much we'd rather it not happen, stereotypes do cloud our vision when it comes to seeing people of other cultures for who they really are. I love the way Yang addresses stereotypes in his novel. Yes, there is quite a bit of humor involved, but the reader can see how much turmoil and pain stereotypes can cause. Even in the story of the monkey king, the gods made assumptions about the monkey king, and he ended up hurting himself trying to please them.
*SPOILER ALERT*
I'm going to talk about the ending now! And yes, this is one of those books where knowing the ending before you read the entire thing WILL spoil the entire experience of reading this great graphic novel!
The way Yang ties together all three stories at the end completely floored me. I saw the novel in a whole new light; everything made a lot more sense in retrospect. Danny and Chin-Kee are the American and Chinese cultures at war with each other inside Jin. "Danny," or the American side, is disgusted with "Chin-Kee," Jin's irrepressible, undeniable Chinese heritage. In the epic battle between Danny and Chin-Kee that follows, Chin-Kee soundly beats Danny. Well, that is, until Danny delivers a final decapitating blow that reveals the true character behind Chin-Kee - none other than the monkey king! Turns out that Wei-Chen, Jin's best friend, is actually the monkey king's son in human form. The monkey king is acting as Jin's conscience - coming to visit him as Chin-Kee to get him to see how good it is to just be yourself. The monkey king's final words to Jin are, "You know, Jin, I would have saved myself from five hundred years' imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey." Jin takes these words and slowly digests them...
This is a great message for adolescents. In the midst of the struggle between culture, peers, and self, there comes a time when one of the three ultimately wins. The question is, which one will it be? I think I'll go with the monkey on this one!
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