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  • Writer's pictureIz S

American Born Chinese


Jin Wang wants to be known as something other than the stereotype of being the only Chinese-American student in class.

The Monkey King wants to be loved as a god, not just a mere king.

Danny wants to escape the shame of his ultimate negative Chinese stereotype cousin, Chin-kee.

Each character tells completely different tales.

Jin just wants to fit in and be popular at his majority white high school, and leave any ties to his culture behind, even if that means losing the people closest to him.

The story of The Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables, where even though he has mastered everything in the mortal world, he still wishes for more, to be hailed as a legendary god.

And Danny is living with the burden of his cousin Chin-kee.


I did enjoy this book, the art was amazing and it really shed light on the very normalized negative stereotype of Chinese people in America, in a way meant for young people to understand . In Danny’s and Jin’s story, being Chinese is always the butt of the joke to everyone else, and in all of these stories they all want to escape who and what they truly are because of the shame coming from other people. Reading the scene’s with Danny’s cousin Chin-kee was painful because of just how much (very real and overused) stereotyping was happening. Racism towards the Asian community is very normalized to the point where most people don’t even notice they’re doing it, and that’s what this book was pointing out. I really liked this one, and I enjoyed the way all three stories connect and come together as one in the end. I loved and recommend it.


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