In Ken Liu’s short story, “The paper menagerie,” the author tried to communicate that different cultures can affect one’s identity.
When jack was mocked for his culture and looks, he tried wanted to change his culture and he was disdained with his looks, but since he can’t change his looks, he tried to change his culture. He also tried to change the culture of his entire family since he is ashamed of his culture. “‘Fashao la?’ Do you have a fever? I brushed her hand away. ‘I’m fine. Speak English!’ I was shouting.” Here the author use dialogue to show that Jack’s mother’s Chinese embarrassed him in front of the American and he wants to make his mother speak English to not embarrass him anymore.
In the story, Jack had strife with Mark, and the “popular” Mark made Jack’s life miserable in school. This made Jack want to change even more, because Jack thinks: if he changes his culture and buy real toys, he will fit in more. “Mark was disappointed by my response. ‘Show me your toys.’ I didn’t have any toys except my paper menagerie… he was really just a piece of wrapping paper… ‘Here’s your stupid cheap Chinese garbage.’… ‘And I want some real toys.’” The fight with Mark open Jack’s eyes to the fact that his paper menageries are actually just scraps of paper, and “real” American, have cool, detailed toys like Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. That made Jack feel as if he doesn’t belong, and made him want to integrate into American culture even more.
We could clearly see the change in cultural mindset throughout the story of the paper menagerie. From his being mocked, and his conflict with Mark the popular dude, which is the “other culture” in this story.