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Gene Yang

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I have picked three book cover as the three images for my reflections.

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The novel begins with the tale of the Chinese Monkey King, it is an actual literary character in Chinese culture from the classic "Journey to the West" novel. The iconic monkey king character is national wide well-known in China from children to elders, the author intermixes prose and art in a combinational approach that conveys the story to the western audience with keeping classic eastern tradition and without leaving anything out. The artwork is colorful and comedic, helping to pull the reader in. It’s an effective story with a theme of accepting who you are and transcending both stereotyped roles and contrived assimilation. The Monkey King trying too hard to be more than a monkey. Jin Wang as the son of Chinese immigrants struggles to adjust to his life in a school in a small town. Chin-Kee as a Chinese stereotype character ruins his cousin’s life. All three characters has their own "small fate" as Teju Cole mentioned. Frankly, the three stories of three characters may seem completely distinct and self-contained, but the author weave the three tales tie together into a singular and cohesive story with deep emotional resonance as you review the whole novel, especially as Chinese immigrants.

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As Patel (2015) quoted Nina Simone speaks of living fear without any qualifiers, caveats or conditions -- “ I’ll tell you what freedom is to me. No fear. I mean, really! No fear”. This quote reminded Jin Wang's story about his school experiences and he falls in love with an all-American girl, Jin Wang as the only Chinese-American student in his school, reminded the Chinese immigrants for reassuring Asian-American children or immigrants that people are not alone in their humiliation, and you have no way to force people stopping the remarks from coming,  but rather as immigrants endure them and then overcome them with your own God-given sense of self-worth. It reminds me of the difficulties as a new first generation immigrant and how great it is as well by seeing our identity as our privilege. It recalls me back emotionally to many of the feelings that I had gone through in the past decade. Settle down in a whole different environment is always hard for new immigration, but everyone carry a strong heart to do so with no fear and become a better one.

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As Chimamanda (2009) ted talk mentioned, “when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise”. It links to Jin Wang and Chin-kee stories that challenge the stereotypes or common ideas that reflect people’s single stories, every single family and new immigrants own their unique stories just like Moises family, just like my own story and our identities but it definitely cannot represent as a whole (people, country, race, etc). The author Yang mentioned a few very important views on finding people identity by story-telling. Many teenager immigrants are facing a hard time discovering who they are or people are forced to make a decision between their own identity and the society people are involved in. Many stereotypes were showed in the novel that associated with Asian cultures specifically Chinese culture. The novel stories taught us that to be proud of our ancestry and ethnicity, be honest and brave to embrace our culture. As the Monkey King said, " I realized how good it is to be a Monkey", immigrants keep improving themselves, working hard every single day and overcome unimaginable boundaries and difficulties in this country and enjoy their "American Dream" and continue their better life as "Monkey".

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1. Adichie, C. N. (2009). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story. TED Talk.

2. NPR Staff. (2012, April 9). Simple Tweets Of Fate: Teju Cole's Condensed News. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2012/04/09/150068298/simple-tweets-of-fate-teju-coles-condensed-news

3. Patel, L. (2015). Nationalist narratives, immigration, and coloniality. Decolonization: Indigeniety, Education & Society Blog.

4. Relevant images retrieved from https://lithub.com/10-contemporary-novels-about-the-immigrant-experience-in-america/

5. Yang, G. L. (2006). American Born Chinese. First Second. Retrieved from https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/American-Born-Chinese/Full?id=91035&readType=1

6. Video Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoR2JxiM3gg