Literary Devices in American Born Chinese
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Here's the deal: you've got three different stories. And that means that you've got (at minimum) three different locations. Since the stories eventually interconnect, the locations eventually all c...
Narrator Point of View
Third Person (Objective)American Born Chinese is kind of like watching a movie or a TV series—at least, for two-thirds of it. (We'll get to the other third shortly.) Both the story lines for the...
Genre
Young Adult LiteratureThe book is about a Chinese American teenager in junior high school, and more than half of the book is set at school. Plus it deals with all the things young adult readers car...
Tone
We could have chosen thoughtful to describe the overall tone of the book, but when you have a monk spitting out serious head-scratchers like "To find your true identity… within the will of Tze-Yo...
Writing Style
These three words really only work together. Why? Because the book is a graphic novel and dialogue takes up the majority of the writing. And when we're not reading dialogue, we're hearing from a co...
What's Up With the Title?
Every minority group has its code words. Think of the phrase American born Chinese (or ABC) as Chinese American code for kids born in America but of Chinese descent. "But wait!" you're thinking. "S...
What's Up With the Ending?
We admit it: the ending is totally wild. Who could have predicted that Chin-Kee was actually the Monkey King? Or that Wei-Chen was the son of Monkey and also an emissary-in-training? But it all wor...
Tough-o-Meter
"All right," you're thinking. "Why isn't this book rated at Sea Level (1-2)? Isn't it a comic book? How hard can that be?" Okay, so we'll give you the fact that this book definitely isn't a Ulysses...
Plot Analysis
This might seem complicated, but it really isn't. Since there are three stories that eventually become one, we've got to give you three analyses, at least for the first half of the book. Kind of...
Trivia
Did you know that Tze-Yo-Tzuh is just a "transliteration of 'I AM' in Chinese"? No? Gene Yang explains why he created the character of Tze-Yo-Tzuh in a comment on his blog.
(Source.)
A boy liked th...
Steaminess Rating
You've got one kiss in the book and it isn't even one that has any romantic intention behind it. You've got some bullying, but nothing that would make you freak out. In fact, the most dangerous and...
Allusions
"The Monkey King" by Wu Cheng'en (chapters 1, 4, 7, 9)William Hung's American Idol performance (9.5)Rice rocket (9.105-9.113)Boba or pearl milk tea (9.114-9.124)Transformers (2.17-2.19)Yao Min...