Author: Gene Luen Yang
Illustrator: Gene Luen Yang
Publisher: First Second Books
Format: Paperback
Genre: Graphic Novel
Date: September 5, 2006
Number of issues: 1
Pages: 240
ISBN: 978-1-59643-152-2
Language: English
Adaptation: Modern

Summary:

The story of American Born Chinese consists of three seemingly separate tales, which are tied together at the end of the book.

The first storyline is Yang's contemporary rendition of the Chinese story of a Kung Fu practicing Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain, The Monkey King, a character from the classic 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. Yang replaces the Buddha from the original story with a Christian influenced deity Tze-Yo-Tzuh. Throughout the story, The Monkey King is unhappy with himself as a monkey and continually tries to become another version of himself. The Monkey King grows larger, taking a more human form. After being rejected from a divine dinner party, he takes down every deity that has been sent to stop him, growing stronger by each kill. The lesser deities plead to the more powerful being in the world, Tze-Yo-Tzuh, to stop The Monkey King. Tze-Yo-Tzuh tries to help The Monkey King accept himself, but when The Monkey King refuses, Tze-Yo-Tzuh imprisons him under a mountain of rocks. A monk named Wong Lai-Tsao is sent by Tze-Yo-Tzuh on a mission to carry three packages to the west and is to pick up his disciple, The Monkey King, on his journey. He finds The Monkey King imprisoned under the mountain of rocks and frees him from the mountain by convincing The Monkey King to return to his original form.

The second storyline follows a child of Chinese immigrants named Jin Wang. His story links the other two narratives, and fits the form of an ethnic coming-of-age.[3] His family moves from San Francisco's Chinatown to a suburb where he goes to school with only one other Asian student, Suzy Nakamura. The teachers and other students in Jin's school are all ignorant of his Chinese culture. Jin struggles with his Chinese identity and begins to reject it until he meets a new Asian student, Wei-Chen Sun. Wei-Chen is a Taiwanese immigrant who just came to the United States, and he and Jin become best friends. Wei-Chen begins dating Suzy Nakamura, and she joins the group of friends. Jin begins dating Amelia Harris, a Caucasian girl in his class, but her friend Greg asks Jin not to ask her out anymore because he felt she needed to protect her image. Jin perceives this as a personal attack on him because of his race. Angry and confused, he kisses Suzy and the friends have a falling-out. That evening, Jin recalls the fight he had with Wei-Chen and convinces himself that Wei-Chen deserved it. That night, Jin has a dream about a Chinese woman he had met when he was younger who had told him that he could be anything he wanted if he was willing to give up his soul. He awakens the next morning and looks in the mirror to see himself as a Caucasian boy, and he changes his name to Danny.

The third storyline follows Danny, a 16-year-old "all-American" boy, and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee,[3] who has visited Danny annually for the past three years. Danny is embarrassed by Chin-Kee, who is depicted as a racist stereotype, in traditional queue with buck teeth, speaking in pidgin English. At the story's climax, Danny fights Chin-Kee when the latter refuses to leave. When Danny punches Chin-Kee, he reveals himself to be the Monkey King in disguise, causing Danny to transform back into Jin as well. The Monkey King tells Jin that his son Wei-Chen was sent to live among the mortals without sin for forty years but no longer wanted to follow in his father's footsteps of serving humans after becoming sickened by his classmates' self-centeredness. Wei-Chen refused his father's visits, so the Monkey King began visiting "Danny" instead, using the Chin-Kee disguise to remind Jin of his heritage and convince him to rise above negative stereotypes. Jin reconciles with Wei-Chen and finally accepts his Chinese identity. An epilogue image shows the two recording a music video together (based on the Back Dorm Boys).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Born_Chinese_(graphic_novel)