American Born Chinese (Chapters 1-6) Study Guide – Flashcards
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Squares or rectangles that contain a single scene.
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Panel
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The spaces between panels
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Gutters
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Contains communication between/among characters.
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Dialogue Balloons/Speech Bubbles
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Contain a character's thoughts.
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Thought Balloons
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Contain information about a scene or character.
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Captions
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Visual sound clues (example: Wonk! Pow!)
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Sound Effects/Onamonapia
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Hinting at something that will happen later in the book.
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Foreshadowing
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What is priming?
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Priming is similar to repetition because it shows something happening several times, but at different times of the story. Priming examples are often shown at the beginning of the graphic novel, and is used throughout the rest of it so the readers will recognize it.
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What is an example of priming in American Born Chinese?
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Monkey King's 4 disciplines have certain backgrounds and sound effects used whenever he uses them. Throughout the story, whenever he uses them, they have these backgrounds and sound effects.
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What are the three story lines in ABC?
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Monkey King, Jin, and Chin-Kee.
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Describe the Monkey King's experience at the dinner party in Chapter 1.
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Monkey King finds out about this dinner party because he could smell the food from his kingdom. He had to wait a very long line to get in, but was still very excited to go. Once Monkey King got in, the guard asked him to leave because he had no shoes. The Monkey King was angered, and explained that he was a deity and a king too. The guard told him "You may be a king, you may even be a deity, but you are still a monkey". In frustration and embarrassment, Monkey King went insane and attacked everyone at the party, using his four disciplines.
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What does Monkey King notice and want to get rid of at the end of Chapter 1? How does he do this in Chapter 4?
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Monkey King notices his "monkey smell" and wants to get rid of his hair, and to no longer be a monkey. To do this, in Chapter 4, he shape shifts to look taller, and defeats almost all of the other gods to prove to them he is a deity, and not a monkey.
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What does the Chinese parable in Chapter 2 mean?
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The world around you has a huge effect on your life and your decisions.
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What does the parable foreshadow?
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The parable foreshadows that Jin's new surroundings in a American suburb will have a big effect on him.
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What does the herbalist's wife say to Jin? Why is this important?
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The herbalist's wife tells Jin that "It's easy to become anything you wish, so as long as you forfeit your soul.". This is important because Jin "forfeits his soul" by becoming more like an American child and abandoning his Chinese heritage after kids bullied him for being different. (For example, eating a sandwich instead of dumplings at lunch).
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How do the kids at school make fun of Jin for being Chinese?
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The kids make fun of him by calling him "bucktooth" and saying that he eats dogs and cats.
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Why does Jin want Wei-Chen to speak English? How is this similar to the Monkey King and being a monkey?
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Jin wants Wei-Chen to speak English, because he hates being reminded of his culture that he was humiliated for. This is similar to the Monkey King's story, because he was reminded that he was just a monkey once he got home and could smell himself after he wasn't let into the dinner party for being a monkey.
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How did Jin change from the beginning of Chapter 2 to the end?
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Jin avoided being associated with being Chinese after kids picked on him for his race. He did this by eating sandwiches during lunch and telling Wei-Chen to "speak English, this is America." after he talked to him Chinese.
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What do the Chin-Kee chapters take place in? How do we know this?
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A TV sitcom. We know this because of the laugh track ("Hahaha!") shown at the bottom of the panels.
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What are the negative Chinese stereotypes of Chin-Kee?
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Chin-Kee's eyes are completely closed, has buck teeth, and he uses "r"s instead of "l"s and vice versa (Example: "Herro Amellica!)
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What are the stereotypes of Danny and Melanie?
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Danny is the typical boy with a obvious crush on a girl, and Melanie is the typical love interest.
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What new disciplines does the Monkey King learn in Chapter 3?
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Invulnerability to fire, drowning, wounds, and cold, growing larger, smaller, creating clones out of hair and shapeshifting.
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What does Tze-Yo-Tzuh tell the Monkey King regarding him being a monkey?
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Tze-Yo-Tzuh tells the Monkey King that he created everything in existence, including him, and he was meant to be a monkey.
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What does the author do to show the Monkey King "flying through the boundaries of reality itself"?
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The author illustrates Monkey King literally breaking through a panel, and flying into the white space behind them/the gutters.
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When escaping Tze-Yo-Tzuh's reach, the Monkey King finds five pillars. What are these pillars revealed to be and what does the Monkey King do on them?
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These pillars are revealed to actually be Tze-Yo-Tzuh's fingers, and the Monkey King writes his name and urinates on them to mark his territory. The fact that these were his fingers proves that the Monkey King is never out of his reach.
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When the Monkey King challenges him, what does Tze-Yo-Tzuh do?
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Tze-Yo-Tzuh buries the Monkey King under a mountain of rocks so he can't escape for five hundred years.
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Jin is in what grade in Chapter 5?
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7th grade.
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What girl does Jin have a crush on in Chapter 5?
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Amelia Harris
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Who does Jin think Amelia likes?
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Greg.
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What does Wei-Chen say when Jin tells him he likes Amelia?
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That in Taiwan, boys under 18 are made fun of for liking a girl. Jin points out how he is acting Taiwaneese, while they are in America. (Similar to how Jin tells him to speak English in Chpater 2)
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How are Wei-Chen and Jin different in Chapter 5?
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Wei-Chen is still connected to his Taiwaneese heritage and often talks about it, while Jin has melted into an American. We can see this by the foods they are eating, how they dress, and how they speak.
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What does Jin do in an attempt to get Amelia to like him?
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He changes his hairstyle to look like Greg's
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What lesson is Wei Chen teaching Jin when he dates Suzy Nakamura?
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That Jin should embrace who he really is (Chinese), and people will still like him.
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What happens to Wei-Chen and Amelia while taking care of their animals for Biology?
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They get locked in the closet while trying to look for foods for the animals.
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What happens at the end of Chapter 5? How is it illustrated?
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At the end of Chapter 5, Jin asks Amelia out on a date. Jin says that the rest felt like a "blur", so the sides of the panel are blurry, scribbly and white (blanked out).
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What are more stereotypes/cliches throughout Chapter 6?
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Steve is the stereotypical jock who loves sports, is a large size, is tall and teasing of other students. Chin-Kee is also shown literally eating a cat, and getting every question in every class correct. (Stereotype that Asians are smart.) A cliche in the chapter is how Amelia "just wants to be friends" with Danny.
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What does Chin-Kee do to Steve's Coke?
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He urinates in it as a prank. (Ew!)
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Why does Danny think Melanie doesn't want to go out with him?
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Danny thinks Melanie won't go out with him because he is related to Chin-Kee, but the real reason is because she just wants to stay good friends.
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Why does Danny take offense to Steve saying "I'll buy you a Coke"?
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Danny takes offense to this because he thinks Steve is referencing how Chin-Kee peed in his Coke, and is associating him with Chin-Kee.
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Make sure you know how to use transitions and know how to make sentence long transitions.
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:)
