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Chapter 6
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 narrator explains that only four monks have ever achieved legendary status. Chi Dao focused on meditation until he turned to stone, while Jing Sze fasted for 14 months. Jiang Tao’s sermons were eloquent enough to make bamboo weep. The final monk, Wong Lai-Tsao, is comparatively unremarkable. He can’t meditate for more than 20 minutes or fast for more than half a day, and his sermons don’t make sense. Every morning, however, he gets up early, picks fruit, and shares it with vagrants who live outside of town. He then dresses their wounds and heads home at night. The vagrants are cruel and dismissive, and one refers to Wong Lai-Tsao as a “lazy bum.” Still, Wong Lai-Tsao performs this routine daily for years.
Wong Lai-Tsao embodies the idea that a person should be extremely humble and generous to others, and that living a life centered on generosity is what makes a person great and worthy of divine attention. Applying this to the Monkey King’s story, this suggests that his grasp of kung-fu isn’t what makes him a great sage—rather, the Monkey King could likely become an even greater deity if he chose to use his kung-fu mastery to better the lives of his monkeys on Flower-Fruit Mountain.
Themes
One afternoon, a vagrant asks Wong Lai-Tsao why he continues to serve the vagrants and another asks if he’s too dumb to get a real job. Very seriously, Wong Lai-Tsao says that he’s no more worthy of love than the vagrant, but that Tze-Yo-Tzuh still loves him deeply and faithfully. Because of this, he believes he must love others like Tze-Yo-Tzuh loves him. The vagrant thinks for a moment, declares that this answer is good, and then suddenly the group of vagrants transforms into Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s emissaries. The lion explains who they are and says that Tze-Yo-Tzuh has chosen Wong Lai-Tsao for a mission. The human motions to three boxes and says that he needs to carry three packages to the west. A star will guide him. The eagle warns that the journey will be perilous—demons believe the old wives’ tale that eating a holy man grants eternal life.
That the emissaries can change their form in this situation, and that this ability is presented as a positive thing, suggests that there are times when changing one’s form is acceptable and even desirable. In this case, shape-shifting is useful in that the emissaries can test Wong Lai-Tsao and give him his divine mission. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that even though the emissaries’ forms change, their true natures as disciples of Tze-Yo-Tzuh don’t really change (their insults, presumably, were part of the test, not a true reflection of them being malevolent individuals). Through this, the novel encourages readers to understand the importance of being true to oneself—even if one must temporarily take on a new identity to do so.
Themes
The emissaries ask if Wong Lai-Tsao accepts the mission and after a moment of silence, Wong Lai-Tsao says he accepts any plans that Tze-Yo-Tzuh has for him. The lion then explains that Wong Lai-Tsao will receive three disciples, whom he’ll gather along his journey. The first is an ancient monkey deity, who is currently imprisoned beneath a mountain. The following morning, Wong Lai-Tsao gets up early and sets off. He struggles through the jungle and crosses a wide river. He climbs mountains, crosses deserts, and camps—and as he travels, two demons begin to follow him.
Tze-Yo-Tzuh created everyone and everything, and therefore gets the last say on what a person’s identity is. Because of this, Wong Lai-Tsao believes that if Tze-Yo-Tzuh wants him to undertake this quest, he has no choice but to accept and tackle it as best he can. His willingness to eschew any potential selfish desires, in other words, opens him up to new experiences and the full extent of his own potential.
Themes
After hiking for 40 days, Wong Lai-Tsao reaches the Monkey King’s mountain. The Monkey King snoozes where he lies trapped, but wakes and perks up when Wong Lai-Tsao calls him “disciple” and asks him to free himself from the mountain quickly—Wong Lai-Tsao needs help bearing his burden. The Monkey King is incensed and asks if Wong Lai-Tsao knows who he is. When Wong Lai-Tsao replies that he’s the monkey disciple promised to him by Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the Monkey King loses his temper. He shouts that he’s The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, the ruler of Flower-Fruit Mountain, and the master of 12 major disciplines of kung-fu. He reaches for Wong Lai-Tsao and threatens to beat him for his rudeness. Wong Lai-Tsao calmly asks the Monkey King to stop so they can get on with their journey.
Because of the effort the Monkey King put into turning himself into The Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, it’s understandably annoying to be referred to merely as a disciple—but given that Tze-Yo-Tzuh promised the Monkey King to Wong Lai-Tsao, it’s reasonable to assume that an essential part of the Monkey King’s true identity is to be a helper to Wong Lai-Tsao. This makes the Monkey King’s personal quest even more difficult, as his pride makes it hard for him to accept not just that he’s a monkey, but that his purpose in life is to serve others.
Themes
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Enraged, the Monkey King insults Wong Lai-Tsao and points out that he’s stuck in a mountain, so even if he wanted to help and hang out with such an unintelligent person as Wong Lai-Tsao, he can’t. Wong Lai-Tsao points out that the Monkey King’s current form isn’t his true form and if he assumes his true form, he’ll be free. Even angrier, the Monkey King calls Wong Lai-Tsao stupid and points to the seal that Tze-Yo-Tzuh left, which forbids him from exercising kung-fu and escaping. Wong Lai-Tsao points out that returning to his true form means releasing kung-fu, not exercising it. The Monkey King starts to respond, but stops and falls silent.
When Wong Lai-Tsao insists that the Monkey King must release kung-fu in order to free himself from the mountain, what he’s really saying is that the Monkey King needs to let go of everything that made him violent, proud, and stubborn—only through doing that can the Monkey King learn to be happy with who he is. Essentially, the Monkey King can’t muscle his way out of this. He needs to free himself by engaging in self-reflection instead.
Themes
The Monkey King points out that there are slobbering demons behind Wong Lai-Tsao, but Wong Lai-Tsao already knows this. He says this is why the Monkey King needs to get out of the mountain immediately. The Monkey King asks what will happen if he refuses to do so, and Wong Lai-Tsao responds that if Tze-Yo-Tzuh wants him to die due to the Monkey King’s stubbornness, then that’s the way it is. As the demons close in, the Monkey King says he’ll enjoy watching the demons pick Wong Lai-Tsao out of their teeth, since he’s dumb and deserves it. Wong Lai-Tsao points out that this is the Monkey King’s last chance at freedom, but the Monkey King insists that serving as a mortal’s slave boy isn’t freedom.
The Monkey King is insulated by the idea of being a disciple to Wong Lai-Tsao, equating the role with slavery . This speaks to just how far away from his true nature the Monkey King has gotten—remember at the beginning of the novel, the Monkey King used his powers to rule gently and fairly over his subjects, essentially dedicating his life to serving others. Further, the Monkey King’s unwillingness to serve a mortal suggests that the he may harbor prejudices of his own, just like the other residents of Heaven are prejudiced against monkeys.
Themes
The Monkey King stops abruptly when the demons stab Wong Lai-Tsao. Wong Lai-Tsao manages to say that finding one’s true identity within Tze-Yo-Tzuh’s will is the highest freedom. Snidely, the Monkey King asks if Wong Lai-Tsao’s true identity is to be dinner for demons. Wong Lai-Tsao says it might be and asks if the Monkey King’s true identity is the eternal prisoner of a mountain of rock. The Monkey King harrumphs and looks away, but groans when the demons put Wong Lai-Tsao on a spit and begin to roast him.
Even if Wong Lai-Tsao is extremely virtuous and, on the whole, tends not to engage in petty insults, he gets the last word here when he asks if the Monkey King is really going to hang out in a mountain his entire life. Through this, he essentially asks the Monkey King if it’s worth it to hang onto his pride when letting it go of it would allow him to get so much more out of life—not least his freedom.
Themes
With a sigh, the Monkey King returns to his original form. The mountain around him crumbles and he’s able to crawl out. He stretches, dusts himself off, pulls out his cudgel, and proceeds to beat up the demons. The Monkey King unties Wong Lai-Tsao, but a demon lifts the Monkey King up by his head. The demon growls and swings the Monkey King back and forth, sniffing him. The Monkey King farts, so the demon throws him forcefully away. Before the Monkey King hits the mountain, he conjures a cloud and races back for the demon, crashing into his face with a deafening crack. He then transforms into a cannon and shoots his head at the demons, sending them flying. In a monstrous form, he tells the demons to leave. They run away, terrified.
In this battle with the demons, the Monkey King finally learns how to use his kung-fu disciplines for good: fighting true evil demons, rather than engaging in pointless arguments with others about whether or not he’s a monkey. Indeed, he’s able to use his true nature as a monkey—who sometimes stinks—to get the better of the demons, which suggests that even one’s supposed negative qualities can be positive assets if utilized properly.
Themes
The Monkey King returns to his normal size and offers his hand to Wong Lai-Tsao, calling him Master. Wong Lai-Tsao accepts the Monkey King’s help. The Monkey King offers to fly Wong Lai-Tsao to the nearest town so he can receive medical attention, but Wong Lai-Tsao says they can’t take shortcuts. Instead, the Monkey King can retrieve and carry the heavy parcels. Wong Lai-Tsao adds that on this journey, there’s no need for shoes. The Monkey King looks down at his feet but abandons his shoes. Barefoot, The Monkey King accompanies Wong Lai-Tsao to the west and serves faithfully until the journey’s end.
Calling Wong Lai-Tsao “Master” shows that the Monkey King has taken the final step as he accepts his true identity. Now, he’s learning the value of being humble and serving others. When Wong Lai-Tsao encourages the Monkey King to leave his shoes behind, it marks the final step of the Monkey King’s journey. Now, he can take pride in who and what he is and what he can do, and he understands that it’s pointless to try to change what he is—a particularly impactful lesson when taken in context with Jin’s story and his own struggle to accept his identity.
Themes
