Mona in the Promised Land

I thought it was interesting how in this book there is so many "borders" (ha) between different ethnicities and religions being discussed, even amongst groups that many others on the outside view to be similar. First of all the difference between Mona (Chinese) and then the other white kids who are also Jewish. Then there is the Catholic (Mona) and the Jewish religous lines that are being crossed by Mona. But it is funny how everyone groups Sherman and Mona together because they are both Oriental and assume that they will be together because of that, but then even amongst them, Mona who is Chinese and Sherman who is Japanese, there are these lines that Sherman thinks cannot be crossed as he says to Mona more than once, "You will never be Japanese." Even though many of the others think there are no lines to cross between Mona and Sherman because they both are Oriental, even within their races there are differences, and enough differences that makes Sherman say Mona will have to switch and become Japanese at one point early in the book.
Another point in the book which I thought was funny was when Helen was discussing the French coming to China. It was clearly imperialism, which is a serious subject and has caused so many problems in so many parts in the world, but as Helen talks about, she refers to it as not a big deal and saying, "Oh, the missionaries just wanted to teach us some nice songs in French, and to tell us what nice food they eat in France," (42). I thought that was so funny that she was thinking of it in that way. Very different perspective than Negi has in "When I was Puerto Rican" in having to eat American food and their ideas of imperialism in that book.