History ComicBook / AmericanBornChinese

A Creator/DisneyPlus series [[https://deadline.com/2021/10/american-born-chinese-disney-plus-series-melvin-mar-kelvin-yu-destin-daniel-cretton-1234848912/ focusing on Jin Wang is in the works]], with Creator/DestinDanielCretton slated to direct.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* MagicRealism: The Jin story, which starts as a mostly-realistic, if exaggerated, 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]].

* RacialTransformation: Yeng transforms into a white boy named Danny after a metaphorical DealWithTheDevil. He later changes back into Yeng after punching Ching-Kee who reveals himself to be the Monkey King.

** During Jin Wang's first day of school, Timmy, a white classmate, mentions how his mom told him that Chinese people eat dogs. The teacher, who is also white, tells Timmy that Jin ''probably'' doesn't do that, and assures him that he and his family stopped doing so after immigrating to the US, highlighting how hurtful anti-Asian beliefs manifest even in peers with no actual malice towards Jin. Later, another white classmate mocks Jin by suggesting that he's busy eating Franchise/{{Lassie}}.

* AnAesop: It is pointless to hate yourself for what you were born as, deny that it is part of you, or struggle against it. It's best to BeYourself.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Greg doesn't suffer any serious consequences for breaking up Amelia and Jin after their first date. Jin instead engages in MisplacedRetribution against Wei-Chen.]]

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

* IDrankWhat: One of Chin-Kee's pranks.
-->"Me Chinese, me play joke! Me go pee-pee in his coke!"

** When Jin is convinced to stop seeing Amelia, he blames Wei-Jin for it rather than any of the racist expectations other people had fostered onto them.

* RaceFetish: Chin-Kee, in a deliberate invocation of every racist sterotype ever about foreigners "stealing our women", is always on the prowl for a "Amelican" girl so that he can, translated from the original accent, "bind [her] feet and bear Chin-Kee's children".

* UnnamedParent: Jin and Danny's parents are never actually named during the story. [[spoiler:This is because they are the same people, and naming them would give that twist away.]]

* EthnicScrappy: In-universe: Danny hates Chin-Kee, who ruins his life so badly that he has to change schools every time he shows up. According to WordOfGod, his one regret was not making Chin-Kee even ''more'' offensive, [[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/this-chinese-american-cartoonist-forces-us-to-face-racist-stereotypes saying]] "I feel like I didn't exaggerate him enough. If I had exaggerated him a little more, then maybe people would not find him cute."

** Averted with [[spoiler:the Monkey King's role as Chin-Kee]]. After the ruse is broken Jin asks if that was done in retribution for [[spoiler:the King's son falling from grace because of Jin's treatment of him]]. [[spoiler:The Monkey King]] explains that that's not the case at all; he [[spoiler:assumed the form of Chin-Kee]] purely as a means for Jin to come to terms with himself and while he is disappointed at [[spoiler:Wei-Chen]]'s actions, those were his decisions to make and Jin isn't accountable for them.

* {{Spoonerism}}: Right before watching a movie with Amelia, Jin notes that the theater "just ''l''urned off the ''t''ights".

* AngelUnaware: Wei-Chen [[spoiler: is actually the Monkey King's son, and a divine being undergoing a trial on Earth. He falls from grace because of the emotional wounding he suffered at Jin's hands.]] Fortunately, the situation does seem to be resolving itself at the end.

* AsianBuckTeeth: One of the negative stereotypes embodied by Chin-Kee. [[spoiler: After all, he's just a badly-made human disguise.]]

* 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.]]

* ComingOfAgeStory: Jin's story, including [[spoiler: the portions of it when he's Danny.]]

* DealWithTheDevil: Used metaphorically; Jin is told by an old herbalist that he can be anything he wants if he gives up his soul. [[spoiler: After destroying Wei-Chen Sun's faith in humanity out of petty spite, he transforms into Danny.]]

* EtTuBrute: Wei-Chen suffers this at the hands of [[spoiler: Jin, who ruins their friendship by kissing his girl and insulting him. This has a number of tragic consequences.]]

* HasAType: Jin lusts after both Amelia [[spoiler: and Melanie]], who look almost identical.

** 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, [[TookALevelInKindness he gets better later]].]]

* MagicRealism: The Jin story, which starts as a mostly-realistic, if exaggerated, 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]].

** 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 connecting 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.]]

** Wei-Chen Sun [[spoiler: is actually the son of the Monkey King. What’s the Monkey King’s name in Chinese? Sun Wukong.]]

* PhenotypeStereotype: Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Danny is a stereotypical All-American Boy. [[spoiler: This is deliberate, since Jin chose to become him to fit in.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Both in the retelling of the Literature/JourneyToTheWest and [[spoiler:in the present, with Jin and Wei-Chen.]] The monk who sets out on the journey passes his by being kind even in the face of the abuse and ingratitude of those he's helping. [[spoiler: Jin fails his, and ends up estranging Wei-Chen from humanity and becoming "Danny."]]

* ShapeShifter: The Monkey King learns a kung fu discipline to do this, and uses it to fuel his InferioritySuperiorityComplex. Notably, he assumes a tall, human-like shape constantly and frequently increases its height in a pathological attempt to be bigger than everyone else. [[spoiler: In a deliberate parallel that might or might not be purely symbolic, Jin also transforms into Danny after betraying Wei-Chan's trust, and resumes his original shape when Sun Wukong convinces him to.]]

* UngratefulBastard: Jin gets to date Amelia in the first place because Wei-Chen managed to convince her he was a good person, and because he willingly lied to Jin's mother to let Jin sneak out. Jin repays him by [[spoiler: kissing his girl, then lashing out at Wei-Chen to avoid admitting his own unwillingness to stand up for himself to Greg. It destroys Wei-Chen's faith in humanity, and very nearly has terrible cosmic consequences.]]
* UnnamedParent: Jin and Danny's parents are never actually named during the story. [[spoiler: This is because they are the same people, and naming them would give that twist away.]]

* 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 and angry by this (completely true) revelation, to the point of stubbornly refusing to do so even as the monk is about to die in front of him. [[spoiler: Symbolically, it represents letting go of his desperate attempts to be respected and feared as something he's not, and learning to be secure in being a monkey.]]

* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: In the Monkey King's story, female monkeys look just like male monkeys except with pink bows on their heads. It's later 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.

* ForeignQueasine: Chin-Kee eats fried cats' gizzards. It's also a veiled TakeThat against Pat Oliphant (see below).

** Several Anglo characters behave in this way toward the Asian-American protagonists, the other students in particular. See HurricaneOfPuns.
** Timmy, a white kid whose first reaction to Jin joining his third-grade class is to make a racist comment about how his mom said that Chinese people eat dogs. By high school, he's throwing around anti-Asian slurs like they're going out of style.

* ShoutOut: To ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''. At one point, Jin as a kid wants to be one when he grows up, which prompts an old woman to use them to illustrate a point: [[BeYourself anyone can change into something they aren't, but at the cost of losing what they are in the first place.]]
** Chin-Kee sings "She-Bang", in reference to William Hung's infamous performance on ''Series/AmericanIdol'', which got a degree of MemeticMutation based on an "Asian man can't sing or dance" stereotype.

* TakeThat: Danny attends Oliphant High School, a [[http://archives.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=666&Itemid=48 reference to Pat Oliphant]] for a [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_d-f5Fyep9jI/SuvotLv5--I/AAAAAAAAAGs/kR1H09FCuys/s1600-h/pic-cartoon-oliphant.gif racist political cartoon]] he drew in April 2001. See ForeignQueasine, above.

** 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, [[TookALevelInKindness he gets better later]].]]

* AllegoricalCharacter: Chin-Kee represents [[spoiler:Jin's hatred of his Chinese roots and how he perceives the way other people, namely his white peers, perceive him because of them. Every year, he comes to Danny's school and ruins his life. No matter what Danny (Jin) does, he can't escape him, because Chin-Kee is part of him whether he likes it or not]].

* AllegoricalCharacter: Chin-Kee represents [[spoiler:Jin's hatred of his Chinese roots and how he perceives the way other people, namely his white peers, perceive him because of them. Every year, he comes to Danny's school and ruins his life. No matter what Danny (Jin) does, he can't escape him, because Chin-Kee is part of him]].

* AllegoricalCharacter: Chin-Kee represents [[spoiler:Jin's hatred of his Chinese roots and how he perceives the way other people, namely his white peers, perceive him because of them]].

* AnAesop: It is pointless to hate yourself for what you were born as, deny that it is part of you, or struggle against it, and it's best to BeYourself.

* AnAesop: It is pointless to hate yourself for what you were born as and struggle against it, and it's best to BeYourself.

* ExcrementStatement: Trying to prove that he can escape from Tze-Yo-Tzuh's reach, Monkey King flies to the far end of the universe and finds five golden pillars. He writes his name on the last one, then pees on it. [[spoiler:Turns out they were Tze-Yo-Tzuh's fingers.]]

* The third is a white American boy named Danny, who is burdened by annual visits of his cousin Chin-Kee, an embodiment of every negative Chinese stereotype ever. Chin-Kee's behavior has forced Danny to change schools in the past to escape association with him.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During one of Jin's daydreams about Amelia, it's Amelia [[ReadyForLovemaking taking off her suspenders in front of him.]]