First of all, I think this story is very interesting and educational. It incorporates the fictional story with the real life story/experience of Asian Americans. I really like this story because it seems to be very close related to my own experience. As one of the Chinese descendants in Philippines, sometime I also wish there could be some magical power that can save me from some situations.
In the story, Danny who is transformed by the original character, Jin Wang, traded his soul with the old lady in the pharmacy store in exchange for a life that makes him become the real American, so that he can have friends and normal life. As an Asian American, he tried to avoid other Asians such as “Suzy Nakamura” and “Wei-Chen Sun” because he thinks that he is totally an American and he knew that all American students around him do like Asian, so that makes him irritate with Asian as well. I think Jin Wang is very pathetic, he totally forgot his Asian blood, original root and culture. He tried to fit in the group that doesn’t even like him and always gives him troubles or mess up with him; while neglecting all his true friends, the other Asian students. He didn’t realize that as the Asian group gets bigger and stronger, they will finally earn their dignity and reputation, as the time comes they will finally earn their respect.
As I mentioned earlier, Jin Wang feels shameful of his Asian blood, culture and physical appearance, so he transformed himself into more American-liked character which is Danny. I think one of the reasons that the author created such character is not mainly trying to reaffirm the negative Chinese stereotypes, instead more of related to Danny. I think Yang wanted to give a general message to all Asian Americans who feel shameful or embarrassed of their own ethnicity. Yang tried to say that being one of the real Americans is not the only way to earn respects and friends, there are many other ways that can better balance the nationality and ethnicity.
As a Philippine born Chinese, I am very proud of my original ethnicity, as well as, my country Philippines. I am very glad that I was able to be part of both. Even though I don’t look exactly like Filipino, but I still share the same culture, food, language and education with other real Filipino. Yes, it was hard in the beginning; when I was young, my Filipino classmates think I am Chinese Filipinos look are different, so they don’t play with us much. I am glad that I was able to find some other Chinese Filipino or pure Chinese friends, we stick together and help each other, the group gets bigger and we were able to represent our school to join and win the competition that makes our school, teacher and students proud of us, the Chinese Filipinos. After those days, the thought of “Chinese-Filipinos are different” is gone and it is gone forever. When everyone gets to higher classes and starts to think more maturely, the problem of discrimination of cultural differences seems not to be the problem anymore, at least in my school.
Below are two videos I found in Youtube and Myspace about "Asian Pride", the word might not be appropriate, but the concept is the key. It is kind of oppose to the character Chin-Kee. Instead of showing negative image, the video is trying to show the pride of American born Asian.
asian pride
Alan© | MySpace Video
