Essay Questions

What does the book's title tell you about the way in which Peter views his own gender identity?

Peter is struggling with his identity, but also seems aware that it is a fluid thing. For today, I am a boy; this is a statement that implies that being a boy is just for today. Tomorrow, or further in the future, this will change. Tomorrow, he will be a girl. The statement is both an announcement to the world, and also an admittance to himself. Currently, Peter is not comfortable enough with his own self-image and identity to admit to himself that he is a transgender youth. He is certainly not comfortable enough with his transgender identity to admit it to anyone else.

He knows this will change, one day. For today, he is a boy, but one day, he will not be. He will be ready to go into the world as a transgender woman, and at that point he will be comfortable with his identity, because how he feels and who he is will finally be congruent.

What is ironic about Peter's father's determination to wipe out all traces of his Asian heritage?

Peter's father is determined to eliminate any trace of his Asian heritage from his children. To all intents and purposes, they are Canadians, with only western heritage, Asian in appearance only. He does not allow Chinese to be spoken in the home; this is hugely ironic, because his Chinese heritage is communicated in a myriad of unspoken ways. It is in his belief that a male child is worth far more than a female one. It is in his belief in a patriarchal home, one where his word was law, where he was the dictator and rule-setter, and one where his wife barely spoke up and was so servile that she was little more than an unpaid help. It is also in his impression of what a western young man should be like. His idea of a western young man is similar to a central casting hunky college student; athletic, academically gifted, well-rounded and successful. There is no room in his image of a western man for anything different from the norm. Another irony; his experiences in a communist country mean that he does not understand that in a free western society, there is room for difference. He is determined to make a son in his image of what a western young man should be, but the irony is that his image is entirely influenced by his Chinese upbringing and heritage.