Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

Laura Gao’s childhood begins in Wuhan and continues in Texas, where the customs, food and language of home do not always fit neatly into school life. Making the basketball team and avoiding Chinese school seem urgent enough without the added puzzle of an attraction to girls. Moving between childhood memories and a later perspective, Gao explores the awkward work of understanding identity while other people keep supplying their own definitions. When the pandemic turns Wuhan into a name everyone recognizes, those questions acquire another public dimension. This graphic memoir follows a queer Chinese American coming of age through family, cultural distance and the search for belonging, keeping the everyday experiences behind a heavily scrutinized hometown in view.