As a reader I didn’t find Jin neccesarily likeable, but I could relate to him. Jin represents those painful, awkward, moments of adolescence that everyone experiences. Jin isn’t a wholly likeable character because he’s a reminder of all of our embarrassing moments and teenage angst. I think it’s easy for readers well into their college years and older to look back at that time in their  development and cringe, and watching Jin fumble through his school days and social life is definitely cringe-inducing i.e. on page 95 “Huh huh..at least I didn’t rake the breast.” I think Jin not standing up for himself is realistic (definitely not admirable), I think we all had moments of impotent rage in our adolescence that we didn’t know how to address. Who hasn’t wanted to tell off a popular kid only to cowardly back down and  later  fantasize revenge? I think what makes Jin easy to dislike is his treatment of Wei-Chen. Jin is desperate to distance himself from his cultural identity which has been the source of teasing and torment. It’s kind of heartbreaking to read how Wei-Chen describes Jin to Suzy when they’re locked in the closet when Jin tried to resist even befriending him in the first place. Yang is brilliant at accurately depicting the fickle nature of adolescent friendship without patronizing the reader with a big “here’s what we all learned” message. I think Jin gallantly standing up for himself and his friends would ring as false and unrealistic with most readers. The passivity which allows racism is definitely exasperating, and yet unfortunately very real. As terrible as it sounds, there’s something about the hardness and callousness of youth that makes overt racism seem more okay than it is in adulthood (for example the classmate asking Jin if he eats dogs), or perhaps racist adults are better at hiding their prejudiced views.

Overall, I definitely agree that Jin isn’t likeable, but Yang didn’t insult the reader by presenting a sugar-coated story.