History ComicBook / AmericanBornChinese

** While we don’t see it in the story, the Chinese character that is most likely used for Jin’s name is this 仁, which means “humaneness or kindness”. The character, 仁, is drawn to represent a man connected heaven and earth. [[spoiler: Considering that Jin makes a connection with the Monkey King and his son and the overall growth Jin has in the story before becoming a better person, this fits him really well.]]

* AsianAndNerdy: Wei-Chen Sun has glasses and does pretty well in school. Chin-Kee is an exaggerated version, proving ludicrously accomplished in every possible area of human knowledge but properly accenting his English and using proper etiquette in public.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The Monkey King admits [[spoiler:to Jin, when Jin asks what he needs to do knowing that Wei-Chen is the Monkey King's son, that he wouldn't have stayed stuck under that mountain for years if he had simply remained a little money.]]

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Jin's well-meaning third-grade teacher, as the page picture shows.

** To an extent the Monkey King, or as he likes to be called, the "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven." While the insult visited on him in the opening was pretty poor form, he copes by becoming the biggest bully of all. [[spoiler: But, as in the original tale, he gets better later.]]

While each story arc works well on its own and appear to be independent, by the end all three cleverly converge into a climax that affirm the need to embrace one's heritage and BeYourself.

* AsianSpeakeeEngrish: Chin-Kee, to a ludicrous degree. Wei-Chen averts it: he does have a thick accent, but it's an actual accent rather than a bizarre exaggeration.

* TertiarySexualCharacteristics:
* Female monkeys look just like male monkeys except with pink bows on their heads.
** Then subverted with the monkey in Jin and Wei-Chen's class - it has long eyelashes and big pink lips (due to being a former test subject for a makeup company), but is male.

* IdenticalLookingAsians: Several elementary school students think Suzy and Jin are engaged by their parents, even though she's Japanese-American, he's of Chinese descent, and neither has met the other before.

* MagicRealism: The Jin story, which starts as a thoroughly-realistic story of growing up as a second-generation Chinese in America, [[spoiler: but later includes physical transformation into a white kid, and a visit from the Monkey King to straighten the protagonist out.]]

* ShapeShifter: The Monkey King learns a kung fu discipline to do this, to the point of making himself into a tall, human-like shape almost all the time in a pathological attempt to be bigger than everyone else. [[spoiler: In a deliberate parallel that might or might not be purely symbolic, Jin transforms into Danny when he betrays Wei-Chan's trust.]]

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When Lai-Tsao asks the Monkey King to come out from under the mountain he's been buried under for five hundred years, the Monkey King angrily notes that the seal above him prevents him from using his powers to do so. [[spoiler: Lai-Tsao points out that returing to his much-smaller true form would be a release of kung-fu, not the exercise of it.]] The Monkey King is struck speechless by this (completely true) revelation. [[spoiler: Symbolically, it represents letting go of his pride.]]

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: One of the Monkey King's powers

* AsianAndNerdy: Wei-Chen Sun has glasses and does pretty well in school. Chin-Kee is an exaggerated version, proving ludicrously accomplished in every possible area of human knowledge but properly accenting his English.
* AsianBuckTeeth: One of the negative stereotypes embodied by Chin-Kee.
* AtopAMountainOfCorpses: Banged-up Heavenly Hosts, anyway, after the Monkey King is done venting on them.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The Monkey King's "Giant Form" kung fu skill.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: How the Monkey King tries to assert himself over the Heavenly Hosts.
* BaitTheDog: Greg initially seems to be the one white boy at Jin's school who isn't a racist little shit. [[spoiler: But, when Jin goes out with his crush Amelia, Greg is the one who strongly urges them to stop, wanting her to "make good life choices," directly leading to Jin's broken friendship with Wei Chen and the events of the Chin-Kee plot.]]
* BattleAura: Appears when the Monkey King uses his kung fu.

* ComingOfAgeStory
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Chin-Kee knows kung-fu. Because he's Asian... and a monkey God.]]
* DealWithTheDevil: Used metaphorically; Jin is told by an old herbalist that he can be anything he wants if he sells his soul.

** While we don’t see it in the story, the Chinese character that is most likely used for Jin’s name is this 仁, which means “humaneness or kindness”. The character, 仁, is drawn to represent a man connected heaven and earth. [[spoiler: Considering that Jin makes a connection with the monkey king and his son and the overall growth Jin has in the story this fits him really well.]]
** Danny [[spoiler: who is actually Jin, means “God is my judge”. Danny/Jin is taken down a several pegs by the Monkey King who is the Emissary of [[{{God}} Tze-Yo-Tzuh]]. ]]
** Wei-Chen Sun [[spoiler: is actually the son of the monkey king. What’s the monkey king’s name in Chinese? Sun Wukong.]]
* LaughTrack: Danny's scenes are accompanied by one, in the style of an old sitcom, done as [[WrittenSoundEffect onomatopoeia]].
* LosingYourHead: The Monkey King continues to talk even after being beheaded.

* PhenotypeStereotype: Danny is an All-American boy.

* RaceFetish: Chin-Kee, in a deliberate invocation of every racist sterotype ever about foreigners "stealing our women," is always on the prowl for a American girl so that he can, translated from the original accent, "bind [her] feet and bear Chin-Kee's children."
* TheReveal: Happens three times: [[spoiler:Danny is actually Jin, Chin-Kee is actually the Monkey King, and Wei Chen Sun is the Monkey King's son.]]

* ToiletHumor: Human urine is a plot point in all three stories at one point or another.

* UnnamedParent: Jin and Danny's parents are never actually named during the story. [[spoiler: This is because they are the same people.]]

* AllLovingHero: Wong Lai-Tsao, who puts up with three asshole peasants demanding something out of him, and doesn't complain once. This is the reason why he's chosen for the journey to the west.

* AsianAndNerdy: Wei Chen Sun and Chin-Kee.

* AtopAMountainOfCorpses: Banged-up Heavenly Hosts, anyway.

* BeYourself: The main {{Aesop}} of the book.
* BigBrotherInstinct: When Jin starts to date his classmate Amelia Harris, an Anglo friend strongly urges him to stop, saying he wants her to "make good choices."

* DealWithTheDevil: Used metaphorically; Jin is told by an old herbalist that he can be anything he wants if he sells his soul...

* EthnicScrappy: In-universe: Chin-Kee.
* EtTuBrute

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The monkey in the biology lab is very fond of Wei-Chen, who can tell at once it's a male and not a female. You could also interpret the Monkey King's urination this way.

* HeManWomanHater: Chin-Kee is quite the misogynist.

* IdenticalLookingAsians: Several elementary school students think Suzy and Jin are related, even though she's Japanese-American and he's of Chinese descent.

* JapaneseRanguage: Chin-Kee talks like this all the time.

** To an extent the Monkey King, or as he likes to be called, the "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven".

** Danny[[spoiler: who is actually Jin, his name means “God is my judge”. Danny/Jin is taken down a several pegs by the monkey king who is the Emissary of [[{{God}} Tze-Yo-Tzuh]] ]]

* LaughTrack: Chin-Kee's appearances are accompanied by a LaughTrack, done as [[WrittenSoundEffect onomatopoeia]].

* TheMagnificent: ''[[SayMyName "Say it!"]]'' "Great Sage Equal of Heaven!"

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Both in the retelling of the Literature/JourneyToTheWest and [[spoiler:in the present, with Danny.]]

* ShapeShifter: The Monkey King learns a kung fu discipline to do this.

* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Female monkeys look just like male monkeys except with pink bows on their heads.

* ToiletHumor

* TwoLinesNoWaiting
* UnnamedParent

* AllLovingHero: The monk Wong Lai-Tsao, who puts up with three asshole peasants demanding something out of him, and doesn't complain once. This is the reason why he's chosen for the journey to the west.

* PunnyName: "Chin-Kee" is a pun on the Chinese slur "chink."

* AllAsiansAreAlike: Several elementary school students think Suzy and Jin are related, even though she's Japanese-American and he's of Chinese descent.

* TheMessiah: The monk Wong Lai-Tsao.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The Monkey King is barred from a celestial party because he is a monkey (and for [[BarefootCartoonAnimal not wearing shoes]]).

* MeLoveYouLongTime: Inverted; Jin develops a crush on his schoolmate Amelia, who's Caucasian.

* The first is [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest The Monkey King]] [[TheMagnificent (Great Sage Equal of Heaven)]], who is shamed after being kicked out of a celestial dinner party for being a monkey (and not wearing shoes). He becomes obsessed with earning the respect of the Heavenly Hosts as a result.