Born Chinese Stereotypes

American Born Chinese and stereotypes “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” I believe this quote by Margaret Mead is very accurate and is something that all parents, teachers and adults should think about. “A stereotype is used to categorize a group of people. People don 't understand that type of person, so they put them into classifications, thinking that everyone who is that needs to be like that, or anyone who acts like their classifications is one.” (Dictionary.com). Stereotypes exist for every race, culture and social groups around the world. Some stereotypes can be hurtful to specific groups and some groups direct stereotypes towards other groups more often.
Being a Latina in America I can definitely relate to …show more content…
One example takes place on page 30 of this book. The stereotype takes place in a school classroom between Jin and his teacher. “’Class, I’d like us all to give a warm Mayflower Elementary welcome to your new friend and classmate Jing Jang.’ ‘Jin Wang.’ ‘Jin Wang! He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!’ ‘San Francisco.’ ‘San Francisco!’” A boy then raises his hand. “’Yes, Timmy.’ ‘My momma says Chinese people eat dogs.’ ‘Now be nice, Timmy! I’m sure Jin doesn’t do that! In fact, Jin’s family probably stopped that sort of thing as soon as they came to the United …show more content…
In this scene, a new student has come to the same elementary school as Jin and is introduced by a different teacher. “’Class, I’d like us all to give a big Mayflower Elementary welcome to your new friend and classmate Chei-Chei Chun.’ ‘Wei-Chen Sun.’ ‘Wei-Chen Sun! He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!’ ‘Taiwan.’ ‘Taiwan!’” The stereotypes are pretty obvious and relatively the same as the last stereotype. But the reaction stayed the same as well. It seemed that Wei-Chen was not bothered by the comments either. Stereotypes exist for every group of people all around the world and it is rather easy identifying a stereotype. The stereotypes in American Born Chinese are blatant and can be pointed out throughout the book. The reactions of the characters were desensitized because they no longer reacted to them. I believe this book is about fitting in but it is also about being yourself. The characters in this book try to fit in but also try to find out who they are by not letting the stereotypes define them. I think that it is a very important thing to learn when growing