American Born Chinese

Jin prepares for his date with Amelia by remembering his mother’s story of marrying his father. He also persuades Wei-Chen to cover for him if his mother calls while he is out with Amelia. Jin knows that his parents will disapprove of his dating at a young age, so he consults his older cousin Charlie for advice. Charlie tells Jin that there is no point in dating unless you can drive. Jin picks Amelia up on his bicycle and they go to a movie.

They watch the movie together, and everything goes smoothly until Jin decides to try to put his arm around Amelia. As he raises his arm, he notices something. Jin goes to the bathroom, aware that he is not wearing deodorant, and he improvises with powdered soap. Jin remembers his cousin Charlie’s advice and applies the powder to his armpits. Neither boy’s parents use deodorant themselves, so it is not something either Jin or Charlie have in their possession.

Jin returns to the theater, and at a romantic point in the movie, Jin successfully places his arm around Amelia; she snuggles in next to him, and they watch the rest of the movie happily.

As Jin and Amelia leave the theater, Jin notices that Amelia’s bare shoulder is covered in soap bubbles. They go for milkshakes as Jin quietly panics about the bubbles. At the same time, Greg and his date leave the theater, and Greg sees Jin and Amelia together.

The next day at school, Jin tells Wei-Chen about the soap bubbles. He tells Jin that Jin’s mother called while he was out with Amelia, but Wei-Chen managed to distract her from her desire to speak with Jin. Wei-Chen talks with Amelia about her date with Jin, and she says she had a fun time. Amelia gives no indication that she noticed any soap bubbles, so Wei-Chen signals to Jin with a thumbs-up to let him know that all is well. For the rest of the day, Jin daydreams about a future with Amelia; several thought bubbles contain drawings of them getting married, getting undressed, and having a baby.

Later, Greg stops Jin to talk with him about Amelia. He asks Jin to do him a favor and to “not ask Amelia out again” (179). Greg explains that he is good friends with Amelia and that he wants her to make “good choices” as they look forward to starting high school soon. Jin’s daydreams for the rest of the day involve acts of violence against Greg, and he is distracted by his feelings, which are represented by drawings of lightning bolts. When Amelia tries to talk to Jin after school, he acts strangely, seeing that she is standing next to Greg. As Jin walks away, Greg calls him a “geek” behind his back. Jin goes outside to find Wei-Chen and sees Suzy sitting by herself. He asks Suzy if she is all right, and Suzy tells him that Timmy called her a racist name earlier that day. She goes on to tell Jin about a disappointing experience over the weekend when an old friend from Japanese school let her down. She links the humiliation of the weekend with Timmy’s comment and starts to cry. Jin tries to kiss Suzy, and she punches him in the face before walking away.

Wei-Chen comes to Jin’s house, where he has an ice-pack against his cheek. Wei-Chen tells Jin how hurt and confused he is by Jin’s attempt to kiss Suzy. Jin reacts badly to Wei-Chen; he rejects the idea that he betrayed Wei-Chen, calling Wei-Chen an “F.O.B.” and telling him that he is not worthy of Suzy. Wei-Chen punches Jin in the face, so Jin applies two ice-packs to his injuries, one on either side of his face. As Jin goes to sleep, he convinces himself that “Wei-Chen needed to hear what I had to say” (192). A large drawing of the herbalist’s wife on the following page depicts Jin’s dream that night; in the dream, the herbalist’s wife tells Jin that he has “done it.” Overnight, Jin transforms into a Caucasian boy. A large drawing of the boy in the mirror shows him smiling and touching his new complexion. He calls himself Danny.

As Danny enters the library, he overhears two boys complaining about someone else’s spit; one boy suggests that the other “go get checked out for S.A.R.S.” (202). Danny sees Chin-Kee singing a pop song in accented English while dancing on top of a table. Danny drags Chin-Kee out of the library by his plait and smacks him across the face. Chin-Lee explains that he was singing because he was bored.

Danny demands that Chin-Kee leave, which makes Chin-Kee laugh and insist that he is staying for the duration of his visit. Danny hits him again and again, and Chin-Kee warns Danny that he is “pray[ing] wiff fire” (206); all of the illustrations in which Chin-Kee appears are underlined by a series of “hahas” to indicate laughter.

Four pages of illustrations follow, depicting Chin-Kee’s kung-fu moves as he fights back. When Danny punches him one last time, Chin-Kee’s head falls off, and the face of the Monkey King appears. The Monkey King unveils himself in his true form as Chin-Kee disappears, and he invites Danny to do the same. Danny transforms back into Jin Wang.

The Monkey King reveals his mission to Jin, explaining that Wei-Chen is his son who wanted to be an emissary. The Monkey King also reveals that he gave Wei-Chen the transformer toy when they parted ways, so that Wei-Chen would always remember who he is as he served the mortals as an emissary-in-training. The Monkey King tells Jin that Wei-Chen’s test as an emissary was going smoothly until Wei-Chen lied to Jin’s mother. At this point, Wei-Chen told his father that he no longer wished to be an emissary to humans; in his experience, humans had turned out to be “petty, soulless creatures” (219) and he had lost the desire to serve them. Instead, Wei-Chen told his father that he would finish his 40 years on earth in their presence using mortals for his own pleasure. The Monkey King tells Jin that he reminded Wei-Chen of his duty to Tze-Yo-Tzuh, but Wei-Chen refused all visits from his father from that point onwards.

Jin misunderstands the Monkey King and believes he is being punished for Wei-Chen’s bad behavior. The Monkey King tells him he is wrong and that he, the Monkey King, is only a reminder to Jin’s conscience. A drawing of Chin-Kee’s decapitated head appears as Jin contemplates this point. The Monkey King tells Jin that he had to be trapped under a mountain of rocks for five hundred years before he realized “how good it is to be a monkey” (223).

As the Monkey King leaves on his cloud, Jin sees a pink card fall from the sky. On the card is an address for a Chinese bakery and restaurant called the 490. Jin returns home and asks his father for the car keys; his parents appear in the drawing, and they are both Asian. Jin’s father asks him about Chin-Kee, and Jin explains that he already went home. Jin’s father tells Jin’s mother that her sister needs to be made aware of Chin-Kee’s early arrival; Jin’s mother responds by saying that she thought Chin-Kee was the son of Jin’s father’s sister, not her sister.

The last eight pages of the novel all contain drawings that depict the 490 Chinese bakery café. Every day for over a month, Jin goes to the café after school and waits there until the café closes. One Friday night, after Jin orders pearl milk tea, he hears a car approach. Music blares from the car, and Jin goes outside and greets Wei-Chen, who is driving the car. Wei-Chen appears annoyed, but his facial expression eases when Jin tells Wei-Chen that he met Wei-Chen’s father. A faded black and white drawing of a young monkey is next to a drawing of Wei-Chin wearing large earrings in both ears, aviator sunglasses, a gaudy necklace, a white T-shirt, and a black hoodie with orange stripes running down the arms. The smoke drifts from Wei-Chen’s cigarette as he sits in his car.

Two cups of bubble tea appear in a large drawing. The two boys talk at a table in the café, and Jin apologizes to Wei-Chen, who smokes and drinks his tea before responding. Wei-Chen does not acknowledge Jin’s apology, but he does comment on the poor quality of the milk tea. He tells Jin that the best milk tea can be found at a different café, and he promises to take Jin there sometime soon.