Portrait of a Thief

With its five main characters, the novel celebrates the diversity of Chinese American identity. The crew harbor varying attitudes toward China and how much they “belong” to it, or it to them. However, they share the attitude of not knowing how to merge their Chinese heritage with their American lives. Of the crew, Daniel feels the greatest connection to China, his struggle involving embracing America. Despite having moved to the US as a child and giving up his Chinese citizenship for American citizenship, he thinks of himself as Chinese, not American or even Chinese American. He doesn’t know how to make America his own: “All these years, and he still dreamed in Chinese, closed his eyes and saw Beijing. Even if he wanted to, he could not let go of the past” (82). This conflict is influenced by Daniel’s wounds over his mother’s death and fractured relationship with his father, whose acceptance of America feels like a betrayal of his mother and their homeland. Daniel joins the heist in search of healing, and when he finds it, he is able to let go of his grief and resentment. He moves on from the past and embraces a future with both countries.

Having grown up in Chinatown, helping her parents run their family restaurant, Alex has a strong connection to her Chinese heritage. For her, diaspora means “Chinatown and the places that surrounded it, her parents and grandparents and this life they had built” (309). She knows all her grandparents and parents endured to build a life in America. The weight of building on their legacy overwhelms Alex. Financial pressure causes her to take a job in Silicon Valley, far from her family and friends, leading to isolation and loneliness. Her work for a corporate giant is unfulfilling, her potential stifled. The bonds Alex forms with the crew, the skills she learns during the heists, and the money she earns from their success allow her to change her career path. She can finally create a life of her own choosing.

Lily’s parents don’t talk about their Chinese heritage, making diaspora “an unmooring, a boat cast free” (271). She doesn’t feel she belongs to either China or America, and partakes in street races to escape this discomfort. When she first sees Beijing, she begins to recognize why she feels so disconnected. Lily’s been running away from Galveston all this time, but never toward something. This changes with the heists and bonds she forms with the crew.

As for Lily’s closest bonds, Will and Irene are both “reaching for the country their parents had left behind” (58). Will describes his motivation for the heists as “searching for a way home” (224). Irene tells Lily that China does belong to her, yet many of her decisions seem like efforts to earn belonging. Studying Chinese politics and prioritizing her family over personal interests are Irene’s ways of proving she’s worthy of her Chinese ancestry. However, her final choice shows her transformation: She opts to work for an American political campaign instead of accepting Daniel’s invitation to spend the summer in Beijing, as she no longer feels the need to prove anything. When Daniel’s father, Yaoxian, reminds Will that he isn’t Chinese, his words are “a quiet, terrible grief” (333). He wants to think of himself as both Chinese and American, but feels he’s not enough of either: “[I]t felt like these sculptures, this art […] It might mean something, if I could bring them home” (335). In other words, the heist is an opportunity to do something heroic for China, earning him the right to claim this part of his identity. When Will succeeds, he finally feels worthy of his own dreams. Overall, the crew’s diversity and commonalities show that being part of a diaspora means grappling with belonging and learning to define oneself as an individual.