Both shoes and hair represent the folly of trying to be something other than one’s true identity. The Monkey King’s edict that all monkeys on Flower-Fruit Mountain must wear shoes represents his own desire to be more human—that is, his desire to be something he’s not, but something that he considers to be superior. In Jin’s parallel story, his white classmate Greg’s curly hair represents much the same thing: it will, in his mind, make him appear more white and less Chinese, and therefore more appealing to his crush, Amelia. In this sense, both shoes and hair represent a distillation of an entire culture or state of being into one single quality or element, something the novel suggests is misguided and ineffective at turning someone into something they’re not. The Monkey King and his fellow monkeys still look like monkeys, just ones that wear shoes, while Jin’s permed hair doesn’t stop Greg from insisting that Jin shouldn’t date Amelia for racist reasons.
This doesn’t mean, however, that the shoes and hair don’t still feel empowering to the Monkey King and Jin—the addition of shoes to the Monkey King’s wardrobe are the first step of his transformation to becoming Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, while Jin’s confidence as he dates Amelia and considers standing up to Greg’s bullying manifests visually as crackling lightning coming from his hair. However, that Jin and the Monkey King must abandon their shoes and hairdo, respectively, speaks to the futility and ineffectiveness of trying to be something they’re not—as do the reactions of those who encounter the shoes and Jin’s perm with confusion or laughter.
Shoes and Hair Quotes in American Born Chinese
“I, too, am a deity! I am a committed disciple of the arts of kung-fu and I have mastered the four heavenly disciplines, prerequisites to immortality!”
“That’s wonderful, sir, absolutely wonderful! Now please, sir—”
“I demand to be let into this dinner party!”
“Look. You may be a king—you may even be a deity—but you are still a monkey.”
When he entered his royal chamber, the thick smell of monkey fur greeted him. He’d never noticed it before. He stayed awake for the rest of the night thinking of ways to get rid of it.
The morning after the dinner party the Monkey King issued a decree throughout all of Flower-Fruit Mountain: all monkeys must wear shoes.
“This ‘Monkey King’ it speaks of no longer exists, for I have mastered twelve major disciplines of kung-fu and transcended my former title! I shall now be called—The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven!”
“It’s just that she’s a good friend and I want to make sure she makes good choices, you know? We’re almost in high school. She has to start paying attention to who she hangs out with.
Aw, geez. Look, Jin. I’m sorry. That sounded way harsher than I meant it to. I just don’t know if you’re right for her, okay? That’s all.”
I replayed the day’s events over and over again in my mind. Each time I reached the same conclusion: Wei-Chen needed to hear what I had to say. It was, after all, the truth. And at around three in the morning, I finally believed myself.
I dreamt of the herbalist’s wife.
“So, little friend. You’ve done it. Now what would you like to become?”
Shoes and Hair Symbol Timeline in American Born Chinese
