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 laugh track plays as the bell rings, signaling the start of the school day at Oliphant High School. Danny and Chin-Kee sneak in after the bell. Chin-Kee is annoyed that Danny brought him late, but he exclaims that the school is big and beautiful. He laughs and says he likes it. In government class, the teacher asks exasperatedly what the three branches of the American government are. The laugh track plays when Chin-Kee puts his hand up and Danny hisses at him, but Chin-Kee correctly gives the answer. The teacher is delighted and tells the class they should be more like Chin-Kee as the laugh track runs.
Danny very clearly wants as few people as possible to notice Chin-Kee, hence why he sneaks Chin-Kee in late and then doesn’t want him answering questions in class. This is because Danny doesn’t want to have to acknowledge that many people see him as just another version of Chin-Kee, not as a whole person in his own right.
Themes
In world history, Chin-Kee names Christopher Columbus’s three ships. He correctly identifies bones in anatomy class, solves equations in math, and answers questions in Spanish. Danny becomes more and more embarrassed. At lunchtime, he sits moodily next to Chin-Kee, who happily eats crispy fried cat gizzards with noodles and offers some to Danny. A huge jock, Steve, stops by the table and congratulates Danny on making the varsity basketball team. They joke about Danny’s old team, which wasn’t very good, but Danny insists he has a great jump shot. Steve laughs, says he’ll see about that at practice, and then asks about Chin-Kee. Danny morosely introduces Chin-Kee as his visiting cousin. The laugh track plays as Chin-Kee happily waves “harro.”
As Chin-Kee correctly answers question after question, he plays to the stereotype that all Chinese people are naturally extremely smart. Chin-Kee’s lunch is a reference to a 2001 political cartoon drawn by a white cartoonist, which implies that white people have invented and perpetuated the racist stereotypes Chin-Kee embodies. The cat for lunch, meanwhile, continues to flesh out the stereotype that Chinese people eat American house pets.
Themes
Steve starts to engage Chin-Kee in conversation, but Danny interjects and asks if Steve has a copy of the game schedule. Steve opens his Coke and then digs in his bag for a schedule. While he and Danny are occupied, Chin-Kee snatches the Coke, pulls it to his side of the table and outside the frame, and then pushes it back to Danny and Steve’s end as Steve hands over a crumpled schedule. Chin-Kee’s cheeks bulge. Steve jokingly says he’s going to charge Danny $100 and a date with the girlfriend Danny doesn’t have, and the laugh track plays. He walks away with his Coke as Chin-Kee giggles hysterically. Chin-Kee tells Danny, “Me Chinese, me play joke! Me go pee-pee in his Coke!” Danny is horrified. From outside the frame, Steve spits his Coke and asks what’s wrong with it. The bell rings and the laugh track laughs.
Interestingly, Danny doesn’t want Steve to treat Chin-Kee like a real person—doing so would force Danny to acknowledge his connection to Chinese culture. Chin-Kee demonstrates yet another stereotype when he repeats a common schoolyard rhyme, and actually makes good on it. The rhyme itself invokes the stereotype that Chinese people are tricksters willing to make disgusting “jokes,” and the word choice makes fun of people for whom English isn’t their first language.
Themes
Chin-Kee answers questions correctly in chemistry and English, which embarrasses Danny as the laugh track runs. After school, Danny gets his detention slip. Chin-Kee taunts Danny and says that he deserves the detention since he came to school late. As Danny heads for detention, Chin-Kee laughs, says he’s having a great day, and says he loves American school. He salivates as he says this and heads for the library, announcing as he goes that he’s going to find an American girl to marry and have children with. He invites Danny to join him after detention. The laugh track laughs. As Danny walks away, he sees other white classmates pulling their eyelids flat and laughing along with the laugh track.
The way that Chin-Kee salivates while talking about finding a girlfriend speaks to the racist belief that Chinese culture is sexually deviant—Chin-Kee, in other words, embodies the idea that all Chinese men are out to prey on innocent white women. The laugh track, meanwhile, tells the reader that this all is supposed to be funny—when really, it’s wildly racist and mean. When Danny’s other classmates pull on their eyelids and laugh with the laugh track, it shows that the result of viewing media like Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee is people believing that racist mockery is okay.
Themes
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Danny comes across Melanie in the hallway and apologizes about what Chin-Kee said last night. Melanie apologizes in turn and says it wasn’t Danny’s fault; in a way, it was kind of flattering. The laugh track runs. Danny hopefully asks Melanie if she’d like to see a movie on Saturday. Melanie nervously looks around and says that they’re good friends and she’d like to stay good friends, not mess it up. Angrily, Danny says that he’s not like Chin-Kee, but Melanie says it has nothing to do with Chin-Kee. Danny loudly and angrily says that he’s nothing like Chin-Kee and he has no idea how they’re related, but Melanie repeats that she just wants to stay friends. Melanie says she just noticed that Danny’s teeth buck out a bit. She gives him a card for her uncle, who’s an orthodontist, and leaves. Danny is mortified. The laugh track plays.
Danny’s insistence that he’s not like Chin-Kee reads as expressly odd, since he’s white and not visibly Chinese. It’s unclear at this point how, exactly, Danny and Chin-Kee are related given their different races (are they cousins by marriage?) and what Danny’s connection to Chinese culture is. While there’s no way to verify whether or not Melanie is telling the truth about why she doesn’t want to date Danny, the fact remains that Danny cannot escape from the haunting thought that nobody will want to date him because he’s associated with a Chinese person. Melanie confirms this when she gives him her uncle’s card for his buckteeth—another racist stereotype about Chinese people.
Themes
After detention, Danny goes to the gym and sits under the basketball hoop. Steve comes up to Danny, says that practice is over, and tries to joke with Danny. Danny doesn’t respond; concerned, Steve sits down and asks what’s wrong. Danny confides in Steve that he’s a junior and has transferred schools three times already because every year, just when he starts to make friends and feel like he fits in, Chin-Kee visits. Chin-Kee has been visiting every year since eighth grade and spends his visits at school with Danny, eating his “stupid food” and talking in “stupid talk.” When Chin-Kee leaves, people think of Danny just as Chin-Kee’s cousin, and he has to transfer.
The fact that Danny is willing to open up to Steve at all about his problems shows that on some level, Danny is lonely and craves friendship and community—but because of the shame he feels about being related to Chin-Kee and the stereotypes that constantly haunt him, he’s unable to find any friends. Further, the way that Danny talks about Chin-Kee’s behavior as being “stupid” across the board shows that Danny’s hatred of Chinese culture has intensified since junior high.
Themes
Steve is quiet for a moment, but he assures Danny that that won’t happen here. Steve says that no one at Oliphant is like that, since no one has ever said anything about his own weight. Steve amends this, though, when he remembers that he broke a boy’s nose for calling him “Mr. Jiggles” once. He offers to break the nose of anyone who gives Danny a hard time. Danny thanks Steve for listening and Steve offers to buy Danny a Coke. Danny is incredulous and asks if Steve is going to buy him the Coke so Danny can pee in it. Realizing that Chin-Kee peed in his Coke back in the cafeteria, Steve is disgusted and incredulous, and the laugh track runs. Danny angrily leaves the gym as Steve vomits into a garbage can.
Though Steve means well, it’s worth considering that as a white boy who appears relatively popular, Steve has a lot of social capital to throw around and force people to treat him with respect, something that Danny doesn’t have due to his association with Chin-Kee. Being rude to Steve seems to be just a way for Danny to avoid being further misunderstood or bullied.
Themes
