American Born Chinese Review

For this week I ended reading “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang, which was a story following 3 different people. We are learning about the Monkey King who has learned different form of kung fu to attend a party for the gods, goddesses, and deities. The party Doesn’t go as he planned, in fact, he isn’t able to attend at all because the people guarding the door says that he’s just a monkey. After this happens, the Monkey King decides to become more powerful and change certain things about who he is to gain more acceptance from the gods. Second, we are learning about Jin Wang, Jin is a little boy who has moved to a new school and has racism happen to him almost immediately after being introduced to his classmates. Jin ends up getting a crush on a girl named Amelia and has complications later due to the judgements he faces at school since she’s white. The last story that we are following belongs to a boy named Danny. Danny has a Chinese cousin named Chin-Kee that visits him once a year and goes to school with him throughout the week. Danny is embarrassed of his cousin and tries to ostracize him as the week goes on.

This is a very beautiful story and I loved it immensely. It can have some rough parts but it all makes sense once you get to the end. The ending was something I didn’t expect at all and I think it I will end up reading it again. This book is about internalized racism and how being bullied about who you are can change how you view yourself. Racism is make you become ashamed of yourself, make you try to change to fit your environment, or even hurt others because they hurt you. I’d recommend this book to anyone that loves a good plot twist, a nice story about learning to love yourself, and learning to always try not to change. A 10/10 if you ask me.

There’s also a story that’s been adapted based on the book that’s premiering on Disney+. I haven’t seen it yet, but I definitely intend to. The trailer will be posted below.

Pien, Lark, and Yang Luen Gene. American Born Chinese. First Second Press, 2006.