Onlyfiction reviewed American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
This is an enjoyable quick read
2 stars
It divided the book into three stories.
This first one is based on a Chinese folktale about The Monkey King. Over thousands of years, he mastered all heavenly disciplines. His desire to join the gods is rejected, since he is a monkey.
Another story is about Jin Wang, a boy who moves from Chinatown to a predominantly white suburb of San Francisco. He struggles to fit in at his new school, and he faces many stereotypes. His only friend is Wei Chen.
In the third tale, Danny is a white American boy whose Chinese cousin, Chin Kee, comes to see him every year. His Chinese cousin humiliated Danny after settling in at his new school.
I really like the artwork.There is a lot of insight into cultural identity issues, stereotypes, and privilege in the book, but I didn’t understand how the three stories relate to one another.
There is a …
It divided the book into three stories.
This first one is based on a Chinese folktale about The Monkey King. Over thousands of years, he mastered all heavenly disciplines. His desire to join the gods is rejected, since he is a monkey.
Another story is about Jin Wang, a boy who moves from Chinatown to a predominantly white suburb of San Francisco. He struggles to fit in at his new school, and he faces many stereotypes. His only friend is Wei Chen.
In the third tale, Danny is a white American boy whose Chinese cousin, Chin Kee, comes to see him every year. His Chinese cousin humiliated Danny after settling in at his new school.
I really like the artwork.There is a lot of insight into cultural identity issues, stereotypes, and privilege in the book, but I didn’t understand how the three stories relate to one another.
There is a twist ending to these seemingly unrelated three tales.
If you’re looking for a quick read, I would recommend this American-born Chinese book.
