The Astonishing Color of After

Leigh is the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator. It is during the summer of Leigh’s sophomore year that her mother commits suicide. Leigh is Taiwanese on her maternal side and Irish American on her paternal side. Leigh laments that with the “smudgier version” of her father’s hazel eyes and his “sharp nose” (25), she takes more after him in appearance than her mother. She does not consider her body, which is more thickset than she would prefer, attractive. She attempts to customize her appearance with the “mermaid green” stripe in her “deep brown” hair (26). Leigh’s mixed-race appearance makes her self-conscious, as it causes her to be labelled as exotic and other both in her native United States and in Taiwan. She feels that people judge her on her appearance before getting to know her, and this in turn makes her shy.

While in Taipei and struggling to communicate in Mandarin, Leigh regrets that Dory strove to keep her away from her heritage. Her struggles to communicate with her grandparents, as well as her hunxie (biracial) appearance, causes her to resent and feel jealous of Feng, who looks and sounds far more like she is related to Leigh’s grandparents.