In this chapter, we study roots-related metaphors as an indigenous cultural resource that mediates Chinese immigrants’ sense of belonging. One salient example is the idiom of luoyeguigen [fallen leaves return to the roots], popularly used to express an individual’s affective attachment and moral obligations to their geographical, cultural, or national origin. By tracing the transnational genealogy of luoyeguigen, we suggest that the cultural ideal it depicts has become increasingly politicized to promote ethno-nationalist belonging. Next, we analyze the use of roots-related metaphors among Chinese living in Canada. We suggest that such metaphors permit flexible usages in accordance with Chinese immigrants’ diverse, sometimes conflicting, modes of belonging. For example, while some adopt the hegemonic, essentializing discourse of luoyeguigen sponsored by the Chinese state, other opt for the counter discourse of luoyeshenggen (meaning “[leaves/seeds] fall to/land on the ground and take root) to assert alternative senses of belonging. We use these research findings to enrich the theoretical perspective of “cultural politics.” That is, we argue that while roots-related metaphors make certain political norms readily available to members of a culture, they are neither totalizing nor deterministic. Instead, they permit individuals to agentically express their fraught sense of belonging and negotiate their political alignments.