A monk named Wong Lai-Tsao is sent by Tze-Yo-Tzuh on a mission to carry three packages to the west and is to pick up his disciple, The Monkey King, on his journey. Tze-Yo-Tzuh tries to help The Monkey King accept himself, but when The Monkey King refuses, Tze-Yo-Tzuh imprisons him under a mountain of rocks. The lesser deities plead to the more powerful being in the world, Tze-Yo-Tzuh, to stop The Monkey King. After being rejected from a divine dinner party, he takes down every deity that has been sent to stop him, growing stronger by each kill.

The Monkey King grows larger, taking a more human form. Throughout the story, The Monkey King is unhappy with himself as a monkey and continually tries to become another version of himself. Yang replaces the Buddha from the original story with a Christian influenced deity Tze-Yo-Tzuh. The first storyline is Yang's contemporary rendition of the Chinese story of a Kung Fu practicing Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain, The Monkey King, a character from the classic 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The story of American Born Chinese consists of three seemingly separate tales, which are tied together at the end of the book. It was colored by cartoonist Lark Pien, who received the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Colorist for her work on the book. It also made the Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novel for Youth, the NPR Holiday Pick, and Time Top Ten Comic of the Year. Printz Award, the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New, the Publishers Weekly Comics Week Best Comic of the Year, the San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, the 2006/2007 Best Book Award from The Chinese American Librarians Association, and Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the Year.

Released in 2006 by First Second Books, it was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards in the category of Young People's Literature.

Print (paperback & hardback collector's edition)Īmerican Born Chinese is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang.

American born chinese full book