Gender Identity
For today I am a boy. This is a profound statement and announces itself as the theme of the novel. For today, Peter is a boy, because he was born anatomically that way; nonetheless, for as long as he can remember, all he has wanted is to be a girl. He feels like a girl. He identifies himself as a girl. For today, he is a boy, but one day, he hopes, he will not have to be a boy anymore.
The path to gender identity is not a smooth one for Peter; in fact, it is about as rocky as it could possibly be. His father is a Chinese emigre, who, despite his concerted efforts to wipe out every ounce of Asian heritage from his family history, has a typically Chinese view of the world, and consequently values his male child far more than he does his daughters. It is ironic that all Peter really has to do in order to claim the title of parental favorite is to be what he is - a boy, when the one thing he cannot do is feel comfortable with the fact that he is anatomically a boy, but in every other way, he is another daughter.
The theme of gender identity also extends to the way in which Peter views himself. Partially because of his own shame, and partially because of his dictatorial and bullying father, he is not comfortable with his gender, but is not comfortable with admitting to himself that he identifies as female. He is desperately trying to date his way into feeling like a male, by dating first the mother of one of his friends, and subsequently a Christian evangelist who is struggling with her own lesbianism and is having sex with men to try to "cure" herself. The theme of gender identity is viewed most strongly through Peter's eyes, but extends to these peripheral characters as well, so that everyone in the book is questioning what they are in some way.
Cultural Identity
Peter is troubled by his confusing gender identity. His parents, on the other hand, whilst entirely comfortable in their heterosexuality, and their male and female identities, are struggling with cultural identity. Peter's father has only one goal; to raise wholly westernized children with absolutely no traces of their Asian heritage left in them. He has come to hate his Chinese ancestry and wants to raise his own vision of a truly western son. Unfortunately he is the archetypal Chinese, although he does not recognize this about himself, and if he did come to recognize it would find these characteristics repugnant. He is a quiet and humble civil servant, neither falling behind in production or excelling in a way that sticks his head above the parapet, losing his humility. He is patriarchal and dictatorial, ruling the home, and viewing himself as superior to his wife. For her part, she is also an archetypal meek and subservient, and largely silent, Chinese wife. He also views his daughters as worthless in comparison to his son, a long-held Chinese viewpoint. He hates everything that makes up his ancestry but cannot see that he is the embodiment of it.
The Emigre Experience
This is not a key theme but is nonetheless illuminating when it comes to looking at the dynamic between the first generation Canadian kids and their emigre parents. The children are comfortable with their Asian heritage, finding it interesting, and wanting to learn more about it. They do not feel stereotyped, and are actually not. They are Asian Canadians and comfortable with this. As emigres, their parents want to forget everything that has made them Chinese and want to be more westernized than those who are born in the west. They however tend to gravitate towards typically Asian pastimes, jobs and organizations, producing an ironic situation in which they stereotype themselves far more than anyone outside of their family ever does.
