The central message in the young adult graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is for teenagers to learn to accept themselves for who they really are and not to judge people based on race or culture. The main characters lack self acceptance due to how they are treated by the world they wish to be accepted into. These characters attempt to transform themselves into those who would be accepted, hurting others along the way.
The Monkey King is the first example of no self acceptance. He had learned the disciplines of Kung Fu and the Four Major Heavenly Disciplines, which were prerequisites for immortality, and believed himself a deity. When the Monkey King attempts to enter the dinner party for deities he was turned away because he was a monkey and did not wear shoes.
The Monkey King then returned home to Flower-Fruit Mountain and demanded his subjects wear shoes and went into isolation, trained even harder and learned new disciplines. Eventually he no longer thought of himself as a monkey and named himself The Great Sage Equal of Heaven. He tried to force the deities to call him by his new name, if they refused he beat them until they did. Tze-Yo-Tzuh finds The Great Sage of Equal Heaven and informs the monkey that he is indeed a monkey created by himself, Tze-Yo-Tzuh. The Great Sage of Equal Heaven tries to force Tze-Yo-Tzuh to call him by his new name but, Tze-Yo-Tzuh buries him under a mountain of rocks and places a seal to prevent him from practicing Kung-Fu. Later, after he frees himself from the punishment with the encouragement of Wong Lai-Tsao, he says to Jin in the final chapter "I would have saved myself from five hundred years' imprisonment beneath a mountain a rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey." (Yang 223) The Monkey King has finally accepted himself for who he really is.
Jin Wang is another example in this story. He moves to a new school and quickly notices all the racial and cultural stereotypes. Jin wishes to become more American and in high school he transforms into Danny. Danny seems like the typical American high schooler, but when his cousin comes to visit every year his world gets turned upside down. Eventually his overly stereotypical cousin, Chin-Kee is revealed to be the Monkey King in disguise who has been watching over his son, Wei-Chen, Danny's best friend from when he was Jin. The Monkey King then asks Danny to show his true from and we learn that Danny was really Jin all along. Jin learns to accept himself after talking with The Monkey King and reunites with his former friend Wei-Chen.
In conclusion we learn that not accepting ones true self has negative consequences and that judging people for who they are can lead to non self acceptance.
