Stereotypes in "American Born Chinese" Essay examples

In, "Chyna and Me", Joyin Shinh expresses stereotypes upon Chinese people, or what ethnicity you are, many people stereotype you on what ethnicity you are Joyin Shinh was stereotyped because she was Chinese, and she viewed it as a negative thing. She was one of the two Asian students int her school. She went to Harlem School were most students were African American. How she said, the " average Chinese person gets good grades. She met a girl named Chyna who was an African American who was black and that seemed suprising to her. She was a Chinese person who was different from the rest of her Asian ethnicity. She viewed it as positive because she loved the African American ethnicity. And it helped her learn about other ethnicties. She decided

Frank Chin has been the most vocal critic of Kingston's who accused her "of reinforcing white fantasies about Chinese Americans" (Chin, 1991) and claimed that writers like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and David Henry Hwang who won approval of the American white readers deliberately distorted the image of Chinese American to reinforce stereotypes and cater to the fantasies of American readers about a traditionalist Chinese culture. (Frank Chin, 1991, pp. 3-29)

In this essay, I will be using the book American Born Chinese by author Gene Luen Yang to show some stereotypes and how they can be harmful. In the book American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang uses the characters and places like The Monkey King, the Cousin character, and the school Jin Wang went to in the story to go against and show stereotypes. The author Gene Luen Yang uses the characters The Monkey King and Jin Wang to show the treatment due to stereotypes. Evidence for my claim is in the pages (13-15) when the Monkey King was denied entrance and was laughed at by other gods due to him being a monkey. From the evidence you can see that because of The Monkey King's race,

“You misunderstood my intentions, Jin. I did not come to punish you. I came to serve as your conscience—as a signpost to your soul” (Yang 221). During one’s youth, one is always trying to find their identity and fit in with others so they won’t feel left out of the group. For Asian-Americans, stereotypes impact their identity, making it harder to assimilate with the dominant culture.

Stories and stereotypes make many people want to change themselves negatively and assimilate just to fit in with society. As time passes, society’s stereotypes for how people of each race should be, which race is more dominant than others, and which race you should be, all play a role in impacting someone’s self-esteem and their insecurities. This is portrayed through Jin Wang, a main character in Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” when Jin Wang thinks his crush, Amelia, he instantly becomes happy. But then he thinks about Greg and Amelia together and gets mad. He finally zooms into Greg’s blond hair. The next day he goes to school with the same hairstyle. The hair symbolizes Greg’s all American identity because the stereotypical American is portrayed with blond hair and blue eyes. To Jin Wang, this hair symbolizes what he wants to be, so he changed his hair to an “American” hairstyle to get Amelia to like him. Due to stereotypes about how Americans are suppose to look like, Jin Wang feels insecure about himself and wants to change his identity and himself as well to assimilate into American culture and stereotypes. These stereotypes and the Anti-Asian stereotypes impact Jin Wang greatly and make him hate himself as well as his background and where he came from because he believes that in order to be AMerica, you have to be white. Another way that this is portrayed is from a personal experience I had as a kid. Growing up as an Asian kid in America, I didn’t really know

Have you ever heard the statement that all Asian Americans are good at math and science and they excel educationally? This paper defines the model minority myth, provides historical context in perspective of the Chinese Americans and explains how these Chinese American’s experiences do not fit the model minority myth. The model minority stereotype has various negative assumptions towards Asian Americans and one of them is that it assumes all Asian Americans are a homogenous ethnic group. There are several ways how Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans do not fit the model minority myth. Specifically, the historical context of these Chinese Americans contradicts the model minority stereotype.

“Hey you’re good at math”, “Hey you’re dumb for an Asian”, “Well of course he’s good at that, he’s Asian”. These are the phrases that defined my childhood and still are relevant to my daily life. These are phrases are a part of what society calls today “The Model Minority Myth”. This all started during World War II, where Chinese and Japanese Americans adopted a plan to promote assimilation with the American people. With this plan, they succeeded in proving to America, that they worked harder, were more focused on education to gain their success. While the other minorities protest to get civil rights, the Asians gained their rights by just

People of non-Aryan decent are often times the ones we see get unjustly persecuted by society. The demographic we often see get this type of unfair treatment includes but is not limited to Asian Americans. Asian Americans have been the butt of jokes revolving around ignorant stereotypes for years and it taints how society views them due to these preconceived notions. This paper will further delve into the world of stereotypes regarding this ethnicity and how Asian Americans combat and deal with these biases especially when living in the United States.

Individuals in this world tend to be judgmental, and judge people in groups instead of the personality. Yet, in the article, “Asian American and Stereotypes”, Denise Wong Peck claims, “As Asian American, we are too often judged not by our individual characters, but by stereotypes” (Peck). Peck explains that as Asian Americans; people do not see Asians as individuals but rather as copies; since Americans assume Asians are all good at the same thing. For example, some people assume that all African Americans are good athletes. This is a common stereotype to explain the reason

Although they are the “fastest growing ethnic group” in America, Asian Americans are still not prominent in mainstream media (Zhang 20). Just like every other racial group, they have their own stereotypes. Unfortunately, due to this underrepresentation, there are few instances where people openly speak against these racial stereotypes. In the article “Why Is It Still Okay to Make Fun of Asians?,” Elaine Teng mentioned Chris Rock’s performance at the Oscars. He joked about three common Asian stereotypes, something that people still find socially acceptable to make fun of. American Born Chinese brings up many common Asian American stereotypes and shows how the characters respond to these “jokes.”

One of the most critical stereotypes or perceptions of the Asian culture or minority is that they are not associated with crime and violence. Those are the more significant traits that this minority group has or does not have. However, the Asian minority is linked to attributes such as hard-working, disciplined, mathematical, smart, motivated, and gifted. White American views this minority group as more fitted for education, driven, with the possibilities for achieving greater success than themselves. This perspective was also echoed in the Black, Native American, and Hispanic communities concurring that the Asian race was, in fact, the model minority and the acceptance stretched across racial/ethnic lines(Franklin & Fearn, 2010). The Immigration

The second article I read was, The new whiz kids by Brand, D. According to the article, Asian Americans have set a standard for Americans on education. A researcher at the U.S. Department of Education found that Asian Americans spend more time on their homework, take more advanced classes, and graduate with more credits than other students. They are known to be high achievers. The stereotype of Asian Americans as the model minority group is not true. It is simply because they work harder. Because of their cultural background and how they were raised, they are really focused on their education. They view education as the key to success. “It’s a matter of dedication, family support and discipline,” says Julliard President Joseph Polisi. He believes that Asians are not naturally talented but because of their hard work, they are able to be successful in what they are doing. Asian American children are greatly influenced by their parents to study hard and get a good degree because the advantage the American educational system has in store for them. Asian American parents expect a lot of educational success from their children because of the sacrifice they have to make for their children to be successful in the future. Because of what they have been taught, asking for help is not easy. They have been taught to not show any emotions and be

What I’d like to say to Asians in school is that it is okay to not as smart as most people would suspect. Everyone have different ways of being smart and not being smart in a few subjects such as science and math. What is more important is the fact that you know that you are smart, and not be externally influenced by what others think of you. I believe that is it wrong for people to assume all Asians are extremely intelligent. I know how it feels to be less intelligent than others at time when it mattered.

While the Chinese education system might be structured to deal with this kind of thinking in the classroom, Chinese students learning in American classrooms face the looming challenge of not getting left behind. I have chosen to focus both on the reasoning behind many Chinese students not

“Oh, you are Asian? Are you Chinese?” That’s the most common type of questions or stereotypes people hear. Apparently, people automatically consider Asian as Chinese. However, the truth is that Asian means the native of Asia. Stereotypes are assumptions that people make about a large group of people based on some information. Stereotypes are a big problem and have an enormous impact in the society. Stereotype can affect people’s lives, emotions and the way people interact with the society. Nowadays, women’s gender stereotyping is more usually discussed because many people believe that women are weak, not as smart as men, and belong at home instead of out at work. There are many reasons cause people to form this stereotype. The causes due