ABSTRACT
With Chin-Kee we see how borders are not “neutral demarcation” lines; they impose inclusion or exclusion, and in this type of borderland a person has to decide how much they want to identify with their original culture or the one they adopt. This chapter shows how all three main characters—the Monkey King, Jin Wang, and Chin-Kee—struggle to successfully border cross and how the borderlands they inhabit sometimes actually serve as barriers to border crossing. The Monkey King’s realization that being a monkey was all he needed serves as the catalyst for Jin Wang, the main character in the second storyline, to accept who he is. Chin-Kee’s public performance at school is the final straw for Danny, and he attacks Chin-Kee. As J. Doughty’s work suggests, Jin Wang is an example of a young Chinese American adolescent facing the legacy of his (trans)national identity.
