Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in American Born Chinese, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Prejudice
Racism and Popular Culture
Pride, Stubbornness, and Humility
Storytelling and Universality
Summary
Analysis
The morning after the dinner party, the Monkey King declares that all monkeys on Flower-Fruit Mountain must wear shoes. The monkeys comply, but they struggle to climb in their new footwear. The Money King asks that no one disturbs him and locks himself in his innermost chamber. There, he studies kung-fu fervently, training by day and meditating by night. After 40 days, he achieves the four major disciplines of invulnerability: invulnerability to fire, cold, drowning, and wounds. The Monkey King studies for another 40 days and achieves the four major disciplines of bodily form. He learns to turn himself into a giant, make himself miniature, turn his hair into a million clones, and to shape-shift.
The decree that all monkeys must wear shoes doesn’t fix the actual problem: the prejudice of the gods and goddesses in Heaven. Instead, this is a way for the Monkey King to try to make himself more appealing to those who tried to turn him away. When the Monkey King turns to kung-fu to make himself invulnerable and change his bodily form, it shows that he is potentially turning to violence in reaction to the poor treatment he experienced. It’s also telling that he can change his form at all—through that, he can alter how others see him and how they treat him.
Themes
The other monkeys are ecstatic when they see the Monkey King coming out of his chambers, but they’re also puzzled. He looks tall and walks in a more human fashion, but the monkeys can’t figure out what’s different. One monkey offers him a scroll that came from Heaven on the first night of his seclusion. It reads that the Monkey King is convicted of trespassing upon Heaven and must go to Ao-Kuang, Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, to be executed. The Monkey King growls that this is a mistake: the Monkey King no longer exists, as he has now mastered the 12 major disciplines of kung-fu and transcended his old name. Now, people must call him The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven. The monkeys are confused and try to offer their king a banana, but the Monkey King storms off to announce his new name to Heaven.
Here, the novel reveals that the Monkey King is trying to make himself both more human (through his altered appearance) and less of a target for bullying (through acquiring the kung-fu skills). Changing his name is the cherry on top of this transformation, as his original name tells people exactly who and what he is—a monkey. This new name conveniently ignores that the Monkey King is a monkey, and instead focuses on his admirable might and wisdom.
Themes
Ao-Kuang insists that he’s been anxiously awaiting the Monkey King’s arrival, but he’s inwardly nervous at how much bigger the Monkey King is now. Ao-Kuang apologizes to the Monkey King for not sending someone to arrest him; Ao-Kuang says that none of the gods wanted to pick up fleas on Flower-Fruit Mountain. He calls his guard, who chops the Monkey King’s head off—but the Monkey King’s head returns to his shoulders, and he insists that the execution isn’t necessary. Ao-Kuang deems this an impressive trick and calls the Monkey King “little monkey,” but the Monkey King says he’s not a monkey. Ao-Kuang and his guard giggle and laugh as the Monkey King declares that he’s The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven.
Ao-Kuang’s comment about not wanting to get fleas on Flower-Fruit Mountain is a clear version of common real-world prejudices against people from non-Western countries—that they’re dirty, carry exotic infectious diseases, or are infested with parasites. That the fictional and fishlike Ao-Kuang is the one spewing this rhetoric begins to show that this kind of prejudice isn’t unique to either Heaven or California where Jin lives. Rather, it’s a problem that crops up everywhere, against many different groups of people.
Themes
The Monkey King performs the discipline of giant form and stomps on Ao-Kuang, which convinces the dragon king. Ao-Kuang gives the Monkey King a magic cudgel (staff) that grows and shrinks with a single thought. Next, the Monkey King visits Lao-Tzu, Yama, and the Jade Emperor. They all laugh at his pronouncement, but the Monkey King performs his newly-mastered disciplines and shows off his new cudgel. When the Monkey King is through with them, they’re convinced that he’s The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven.
Now, the Monkey King is no longer using his mastery of kung-fu for good. He’s using it instead to exact revenge and to make others suffer a similar pain to what he did, something that the novel suggests is unfulfilling for the person in the Monkey King’s position and won’t do him any good in the long run. He may believe he’s changing minds, but he’s really just making others even more suspicious of him.
Themes
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Not long after, the gods, goddesses, demons, and spirits go to the lion, the ox, the human, and the eagle, the emissaries of Tze-Yo-Tzuh: the lion, the ox, the human, and the eagle. They beg the emissaries to do something, as the Monkey King is a menace. The emissaries agree to relay their request to Tze-Yo-Tzuh. A few days later, as the Monkey King beats someone over the head and forces them to repeat his new title over and over again, a voice asks “little monkey” where his anger comes from. The Monkey King declares that he’s not a monkey and turns around. Behind him is a tall man with a white beard and hair, flowing robes, and a huge staff.
The gods, goddess, demons, and spirits are (in theory, at least) the very people whom the Monkey King wants to impress and have on his side—but because he’s been so violent to them, they’re even less willing to accept him and just want him to go away. While this doesn’t excuse the behavior of Heaven’s residents by any means, this does show how isolating turning to violence can be—the Monkey King has no allies now.
Themes
The man—Tze-Yo-Tzuh—again calls the Monkey King a “silly little monkey.” The Monkey King stows his cudgel behind his ear and gets in Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s face. Tze-Yo-Tzuh says that he created the Monkey King as a monkey, so he’s a monkey. The Monkey King insists that he was born of a rock and that no one created him, but Tze-Yo-Tzuh says that he formed the Monkey King within the rock. The Monkey King asks whether Tze-Yo-Tzuh can prove this. In response, Tze-Yo-Tzuh announces his name and says that all he’s created—everything in existence—is always within hand’s reach. Because he created the Monkey King, the Monkey King can never escape him.
For the Monkey King, who believes himself wholly invincible now that he has 12 major kung-fu disciplines to rely on, Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s insistence that the Monkey King’s power isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be is entirely unwelcome. Accepting Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s information as truth would mean that the Monkey King would need to accept that he can’t do things on his own, and instead must turn to his community to make sense of who he is and how he fits in.
Themes
The Monkey King summons a cloud to prove Tze-Yo-Tzuh wrong. He flies into the sky and taunts Tze-Yo-Tzuh, but Tze-Yo-Tzuh reaches a hand into the sky after the Monkey King. The Monkey King flies as fast as he can. He flies past the planets, stars, and edges of the universe. He finally flies through the boundaries of reality. At the end of all that is, he reaches five pillars of gold. The Monkey King uses his cudgel to carve his name into one of the pillars and then urinates on it. Satisfied, he flies back through the universe and informs Tze-Yo-Tzuh that he escaped. The Monkey King declares that Tze-Yo-Tzuh is the most pitiable god he’s ever met and tells him to leave.
Again, the most significant element of the Monkey King’s downfall is that he believes he can proudly and stubbornly insist that he’s the only individual who matters, an idea that Tze-Yo-Tzuh shows clearly isn’t true. It’s also worth considering another possible consequence of the Monkey King’s insistence on his own powers: Tze-Yo-Tzuh now has to spend his time trying to convince the Monkey King he’s right, rather than making the case to the other residents of Heaven that they should be kind to the Monkey King.
Themes
Tze-Yo-Tzuh asks the Monkey King to come closer and look at his hand. The Monkey King is shocked: the god’s finger is marked with the Monkey King’s name and urine. Tze-Yo-Tzuh explains that the five pillars of gold were the five fingers of his hand; the Monkey King only fooled himself that he could escape. Tze-Yo-Tzuh walks away from the dumbfounded Monkey King and invites him to walk across a stone bridge. He repeats his name and that he was, is, and “shall forever be” Tze-Yo-Tzuh. He’s searched the Monkey King’s heart, knows all his thoughts, and knows everything he does and says. He says that the Monkey King can never escape him, as he’s in Heaven and in the underworld—and his hand is at the end of all that is.
The assertion that the Monkey King only fooled himself is important—everyone else, from Tze-Yo-Tzuh to Ao-Kuang, is well aware that the Monkey King may be taller and straighter than before, but he’s still a monkey. This is an idea that will become important as Jin’s story develops as well. As an omnipresent and powerful god, Tze-Yo-Tzuh attempts to situate himself as an essential person in the Monkey King’s community. He is, he suggests, the one who gets to make the final call on what someone’s identity is, which means that as long as the Monkey King goes against Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the Monkey King cannot know who he really is.
Themes
He formed the Monkey King with awe and wonder, as everything he makes is wonderful. Tze-Yo-Tzuh says he didn’t make a mistake. The Monkey King is supposed to be a monkey, and he still is a monkey—so he needs to stop being silly and accept this. The Monkey King seems startled for a moment, but then insists he can take Tze-Yo-Tzuh down. With a sigh, Tze-Yo-Tzuh causes the stone bridge to collapse, sending the Monkey King falling to the depths below. When he hits the ground, the stone covers him and traps him in a mountain. Tze-Yo-Tzuh sets a seal on the mountain to prevent the Monkey King from exercising kung-fu, and the Monkey King stays there for 500 years. Only the Monkey King’s upper body sticks out from the mountain.
At this point, the Monkey King is still so caught up in the humiliation he experienced at the party to stop and think about the truth of what Tze-Yo-Tzuh is saying (essentially, that it’s impossible and unfulfilling for the Monkey King to try so hard to be someone he isn’t). Locking the Monkey King in the mountain deprives him of kung-fu, which he believes gives him all of his power. Without it, the Monkey King will have to reflect on who he really is when he’s not behaving violently.
Themes
