We are introduced to the main character Jin Wang as he battles his inner insecurities and tries to fit into American culture. Him and his best friend Wei-chen deals with mild racism, but makes new friends along the way. We are also introduced to the story of the monkey king. This story shows the monkey king being insecure about himself and tries to be accepted by the society of deities. He is denied access just like Jin is denied by the children of American society. The monkey king tries to become a deity but by force. Later he learns that through the teachings of Tze-Yo-Tzuh, he can reach enlightenment. We are also introduced to a character by the name of Danny and his cousin Chinkee. Danny is a American and has to deal with Chinkee 's stereotypical personality. At the end of the story Jin was Danny all along and Chinkee was the monkey king in disguise. This was a test for Jin to overcome all the stereotypes that plague his …show more content…
A great example would be Chinkee 's appearance. As we are first introduced to Chinkee, he speaks in broken English and has a very strong Asian accent. He has buck teeth and wears traditional Chinese robes(pg48). The author included this because he wanted to create a character that effectively embodies the cliche '. He does this because he wants the reader to understand the image of Chinese people that the media has perpetuated for many years. For example, when we are introduced to the character Chinkee for the first time, Danny and his girlfriend are speaking about attraction when suddenly Chinkee interrupts and starts drooling all over Danny 's girl(pg50-51). Chinkee speaks about binding her feet and having to bear his children. This symbolizes a time in the 1920 's when Chinese men were first introduced to America. In this time; many main steam media articles suggest that Chinese men would steal and rape white women. The concept of the yellow peril was introduced around this time as well. The yellow peril can be defined as a danger to western expansion and arise to power from people from Asia. Also in 1882, the Chinese exclusion act banned all Chinese people from entering America. This was the first time that America created a law that directly attacked one group. Knowing this historical information effectively challenges these stereotypes by giving a deeper