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Chapter 2
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 frame reads, “Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee” alongside an illustration of a laughing Chinese person with buckteeth and a traditional queue hairstyle. A laugh track indicating clapping runs along the bottom of the frame. In a suburban California home, two white teenagers named Melanie and Danny study chemistry. Danny drools, and the laugh track plays when Melanie calls him out. Melanie tries to draw Danny’s attention back to what they’re studying, but Danny starts to ask Melanie out. Danny’s mom interrupts from the kitchen, however, and says that cousin Chin-Kee is coming to visit. Danny drops his book and looks horrified, prompting the laugh track. Danny’s mom says that Chin-Kee is coming from the airport now. Melanie asks who cousin Chin-Kee is.
The first frame of this chapter tells the reader that this section is supposed to take the form of a sitcom television show. For readers familiar with the sitcom format, this conveys valuable information: that Danny, the “show’s” protagonist, is probably going to fail a lot, in humorous ways. It also tells the reader that what’s funny in this chapter isn’t up for debate or interpretation—the laugh track will tell readers what’s supposed to be funny, and what isn’t. In this case, the rather racist depiction of Chin-Kee, whose name (which is intentionally similar to the racial slur “chink”) and appearance embody common racist stereotypes of Chinese people, yet are presented as something to be laughed at.
Themes
Chin-Kee bursts through the front door, larger than life, as the laugh track plays. He has yellow skin, a long queue, buckteeth, and wears traditional Chinese garb. Chin-Kee bows to “Cousin Da-nee” and says he’s as happy as “ginger root pranted in nutritious manure of well-bred ox” to see him. Then, Chin-Kee notices Melanie. He spits and slobbers as he crouches down by Melanie, insisting she’s beautiful, has a “bountiful Amellican bosem,” and needs to have her feet bound so she can have Chin-Kee’s children. When they hear Danny’s mom in the kitchen, Chin-Kee wipes his mouth and announces that Melanie must belong to Danny. He suggests, however, that he could find his own beautiful American girl when he accompanies Danny to school. Danny looks horrified as the laugh track laughs and claps.
Notice that Chin-Kee himself is what’s supposed to be funny here—and since Chin-Kee is a combination of many negative and racist stereotypes about Chinese people, the laugh track is saying that Chinese people are something to be laughed at. In this way, the novel shows how television shows like the fictional Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee train viewers to accept racist and narrow views like this as fact. Further, it’s significant that Chin-Kee isn’t exactly a likeable person—he invades Melanie’s personal space and is aware that he’s making Danny uncomfortable. This furthers the racist portrayal of Chinese people as lewd and impolite.
Themes
