In "The Dragon Can't Dance", the hope for personal and community transformation is at the heart of the novel. After researching numerous analyses of the novel, several significant and more profound meanings appear to rise to the surface. These deeper meanings consist of the importance of "performativity" as it relates to cultural resistance, the strategy of the performer (or the lack thereof), and the viability of transformation available to individual or group identities when no adjustment is made to fit in with current day norms or standards.