American Born Chinese by Gene Essay

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Essentially, with Chin-Kee, Yang's saying that the immigrant should not be embarrassed of their heritage. Many immigrants to the United States have shown some degree of embarrassment in regards to their heritage, as in the case of Danny who seems to want to loose his ethnic heritage altogether and become more like the white majority around him.

Yet, the novel also has a darker side to this sojourner image. Not only does the immigrant sojourner desire to still hold ties with their traditional ethnic identity, they are often not even allowed to participate in the majority identity experience, making them even more of an isolated outsider and thus not a permanent resident of the environment. The Monkey King is a good example in Yang's novel. He is not allowed into the gates of heaven for a dinner party with the other deities. Rather, he is excluded because he looks like a monkey.

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This makes him not relevant to the other gods. As such, he cannot become a respected permanent member of the organizational culture with the other gods. Rather, he is the outsider, who may only be there for a short period of time. He himself embodies the image of the sojourner, who does not have a permanent place within the larger majority culture. In this, Yang is showing how the majority culture will often act to isolate the immigrant sojourner on purpose. The majority will isolate them, not allowing them a permanent place within the social environment. This is a much darker side to the image of the sojourner. It makes it seem like a personal choice, but rather a coerced feeling based on the inability to not be able to permanently enter the majority group.

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