American Born Chinese Themes

Betrayal in American Born Chinese isn't just a matter of screwing over someone you ought to be loyal to—it's about betraying yourself. Jin kisses his best friend's girlfriend, but the only reason...

In American Born Chinese, Wei-Chen does all sorts of things to support Jin, and that extends to showing Jin what Chinese American culture is all about. Friendship in the novel isn't just about two...

Lies in American Born Chinese take the form of self-deception more than the deception of others. Sure Wei-Chen lies to Jin's mom, which turns out to be a big deal, but most of the lies have more to...

All three of our main guys engage in various forms of violence because in American Born Chinese violence is a way of releasing frustration and anger. It's also a way of showing how manly you are. O...

Appearances in American Born Chinese are what drive the entire plot of the book. The book hinges on some key twists, all of which involve the making and unmaking of the Chinese appearance. You have...

If we're going to boil this book down to one big takeaway virtue, it's this: be humble. That's the lesson the Monkey King and Danny/Jin both finally arrive at in American Born Chinese. However, hum...

In American Born Chinese, coming of age has more to do with facing your everyday old self. That means the Monkey King needs to come to grips with the fact that he's just a monkey at the end of the...

Who doesn't transform in American Born Chinese? Transformation is the one constant in the book. But transformation doesn't mean turning into something or someone completely new. It's more about (re...

When you've got a book titled American Born Chinese, you've got to expect that foreignness will be a huge issue. And it is. Jin does whatever he can to appear typically "American" (that's in scare...

You might want to look at this theme as more versions of fantasy rather than versions of reality because in American Born Chinese pretty much everyone is engaging in some type of fantasy, whether i...