In The Leavers Lisa Ko, the author discusses cultural identity and belonging. For Deming, he struggles with having a multicultural identity. She shows this by suggesting that being a part of a group is not straightforward or black in white. For Deming, this is true, he struggles to keep his Chinese identity in many different situations within the novel. Daniel went through an abrupt situation where he is adopted by a white family when his mother took off. Peter and Kay rename Deming thinking it would make life easier for him but instead were isolating him from Chinese culture. Ko recognizes that a person’s cultural identity changes often show themselves in language, and that is what happens when Peter and Kay change Deming’s name to Daniel. One week in a new environment had already had effects on Deming. Ko shows how one language outstepped another in this situation English outstepped Fuzhouse. Over more time, Deming’s memories of Fuzhouse started to disappear. When Deming would speak Fuzhouse occasionally, peter would scold him and tell him he needed to be speaking in English. Peter and Kay obsess about getting Deming to adapt to his new environment. And even though Deming does adjust to his new white suburban American lifestyle he does not forget his Chinese identity. Absorption into different cultures does not mean giving up one’s original sense of self. You see this concept later with Daniel when ends up going to Chinatown after he walks off stage due to everyone paying their attention to Roland and him getting ignored. He has a feel of familiarity when walking through Chinatown. When walking through he also got another feeling. To Deming being surrounded by other Chinese people had become felt strange to him. This is because in high school he was used to being the only Asian person. He has this sense of belonging within two different cultural because even though when walking through Chinatown may have felt strange it also felt familiar to him. Deming being multicultural does not bring him unhappiness but brings him an advantage over others because he can be whoever he wants Deming or Daniel.
Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. First edition. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017. Print.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/multiculturalism