Sing, Unburied, Sing

     One of the biggest takeaways from this book for me was the theme of family and the importance of having strong relationships with your children. Throughout the book, we are given examples of how Kayla and Jojo are left motherless and fatherless even though they technically have parents. Leonie, a drug addict, completely neglects them, which is very unsettling as a reader, especially since Jojo had to be the one to take on being a father. In chapter 5 Jojo tells a story about how Leonie killed his beta fish and says “Leonie kills things” which reiterates the fact that she is unfit to be a mother. This element of the story is powerful to me because of how common it is especially in the United States for parents to neglect their children. The neglect from the parents only strengthens Jojo and Kayla’s relationship. Jojo understands that Leonie can not take care of them and when Kayla is sick Jojo explains that Leonie “doesn’t know how to make medicine from plants, and I worry for Kayla”. This quotation explains how Leonie is a neglectful mother and how much Jojo cares for his sister.

    I find it illuminating how Leonie seems to know how to be a good mother but refuses to. I think the reason she despises Kayla is because of how much Kayla looks up to her older brother. Maybe this reminds Leonie of how she lost her brother, Given. Seeing Kayla and Jojo could remind her of her and her brother and it could develop feelings of guilt Leonie has deep down about being with Michael and seeing flashes of Given. I truly think that at this point in Leonie’s life she knows it is too late for her to become a good mother so there is no point in changing anything. She resents her children because they resent her and it reminds her of how she failed to raise them properly. Leonie explains to Michael that “if we had another baby, we could get it right”. I interpreted this quote as her feeling guilty about how horrible of a mother she was with Jojo and Kayla so she wants to redeem herself by becoming a good mother for another child. This quote interested me because it could also be interpreted as her not liking the children she raised which is unfair because the kids have done nothing wrong and are arguably the most moral characters in the novel. 

Changing Representation in Hollywood.

     I recently saw the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings by Marvel studios. The movie was fantastic, a thoroughly enjoyable superhero movie that provided a little break from the world only in the way a well filmed movie can. However, Shang-Chi is different from the other action films we are accustomed to, and this is because the lead actor, and character, is Asian. 

When we began reading Interior Chinatown, my thoughts immediately went to this movie. This wasn’t because there was any core similarity between the two, but Shang-Chi is quite literally one of the first steps in breaking down the barrier for the many talented Asian actors and actresses in Hollywood. During the last in class discussion, my group named only two other films along with Shang-Chi that have shown this gradual shift in American Cinema, those two being Parasite, and Crazy Rich Asians.

But why is it important to have a wide variety of actors and actresses from different races and ethnic backgrounds? This question is explored and developed throughout Interior Chinatown. Willis struggles to achieve his dream role of “Kung Fu Guy”, but an underlying issue to this struggle is his dream is to be Kung Fu Guy. Wu has been pigeonholed into playing a generic Asian guy on Black and White (244-245), a background role that drives the inferiority complex he grapples with throughout his time there. This mistreatment he experiences is put on full display by the industry he works in, the entertainment industry has only recently opened up to the possibility of placing minority actors and actresses in leading roles that are separate from their race. For example, Jamie Foxx was outstanding in Django Unchained, his role however, was that of a freed slave. The necessary change is to have generic roles, such as a CEO in office sitcoms, or maybe a high profile politician in a political drama, be filled by actors who aren’t white. If the mold of placing non-white actors in mostly roles relevant to their real life race can be broken, then representation for all in Western Cinema will be improved. This is touched on by page 159 where Wu’s father made it to the role of Kung Fu Guy, but sees no change in how he is treated, still expected to play the Asian male his role corners him with. Even after achieving a “starring role” his dad is not simply an actor, he is still an Asian actor.

In the past decade, representation for all races has been stepping up in Hollywood, but it’s time for this gradual shift to stop being so incremental, with movies like Shang-Chi, it cannot be once a year that a film comes out that places a non-white actor in a racially unrelated lead role. It is time for all actors and actresses to be seen as that, actors and actresses, race not influencing any decision regarding casting or role allocation.

The Hollywood Template

Through the character, Willis Wu, in Interior Chinatown, the author, Charles Yu, brings to light the very prevalent but often unnoticed theme in America of Asians being sidelined. The character, Willis Wu, is an Asian actor that starts off at the beginning of the book playing the role of background oriental male. His dream is ultimately to play the role of Kung Fu Guy, which he considers the epitome of all Asian roles on television. Various generic roles reserved for Asians are presented throughout the book, revealing the limitations set in Hollywood films on Asian-Americans.

Willis Wu mentions the template that is followed in film, through the show Black and White. The line “there’s just something about Asians that makes reality a little too real” (30), stands out as it explains how black and white characters are considered more acceptable in American film but Asian characters mess with the pre-existing template. The “duality” of black and white is a proven and digestible template that the Asian character messes with, the exclusion, therefore, is not to directly exclude Asians with the intent of racism but to maintain the norm. 

In the book, the character Willis Wu does not aim to break any specific mold but to rather fit in and achieve the highest point of the structure that already exists. Throughout the book, Willis describes the stereotypes expected of the Asian character, the accent, the broken English, and the emotionless mask. The book does a great job at highlighting the boxes placed on Asians in film and the expectations the audience has for the Asian role without awareness. 

As an Asian-American, I have experienced many instances where certain expectations were put on me because of my race. Growing up in a large suburban area and going to a school with over 5,000 students, I found that the Asian-American group of students were often secluded from the rest of the students. The Asian-American group was seen as the smartest and although we would take academics seriously, it always felt weird to me, for it to seem as all we were. Society has only seen Asians one-dimensionally, Asian-Americans no matter how assimilated, are seen as abnormal in our society.  

Interior Chinatown: Metaphors of Water and Castle

Interior Chinatown tells the story of an Asian man living in Chinatown SRO dreaming to be the Kung Fu Guy starting from the Generic Asian Man. The witty and humorous tone of the book brings out thought-provoking metaphors that contain culture and sarcasm. 

Willis Wu lives on the eighth floor, but the shower pan on the ninth floor leaks water down. This is a common phenomenon in the Asian community and also in large cities everywhere. Due to the dense population, people need to save space. Apartments with tall building is an iconic solution to the problem. However, people would suffer the problem of leaking water pipes from the floor above them and a wet ceiling that looks cracked and smells moldy. The book puts it as "...Water hates poor people. Given the opportunity, water will always find a way to make poor people miserable, typically at the worst time possible" (81) (page number differs since I have the large print copy). 

This not only accurately reflects what happens in a tall, crowded apartment building but also serves as a metaphor for Asian people and racism towards Asian people. In the book, everybody knows Kung Fu and wishes to become Kung Fu Guy like Bruce Lee. A famous quote from Bruce Lee is "be water my friend" because water can fit into any form it wants, it can flow or it could crush. Even though Bruce Lee is encouraging everyone to be flexible, this, unfortunately, fits into the characteristic of most Asian cultures - obedience. Being obedient makes racists think Asians are less of a "threat", so they usually do whatever they want and rarely see people revolt. No objection doesn't mean the action is correct, but Asians are being polite due to their culture. 

Racism towards Asians is also like water - it is everywhere. Unless it gets flooded, you might not even notice. Racism infiltrates into our everyday life, it changes form like water but makes you uncomfortable in every way it could. Is there any way to fix the water? Maybe start from the floor above your room.

Another brilliant metaphor is through the conversation between Willis Wu and his daughter, Phoebe - "The thing about building a castle in the air is it's easy. You build up. It's like a little ladder, then you start building a castle in the air. Then, you destroy the ladder. And your castle is floating" (231). Building the ladder is like what every Generic Asian Man is doing in Chinatown. They try to climb the "designed" ladder from Background Oriental Male to Kung Fu Guy, but their ladder seems to stop there. They don't know what's after. Many imagined that Kung Fu Guy is the end of the ladder, but Willis wants to be more. I believe the castle refers to the true "American" life for Asians, a life that they belong to the country and are no longer being discriminated against as Asian immigrants. This castle float without root, because they have lost their root through the thousand miles across the sea. One day, they will get rid of this socially constructed ladder, and fully own their life.

Interior Chinatown: Who Are the World's Main Characters?

Interior Chinatown is a novel in the form of a screenplay, in which the protagonist, Willis Wu, views himself as no more than a face in the background of the TV show of the world (a show Wu calls Black and White). He’s been presented with numerous roles over the years, from “Background Oriental Male” to “Guy Who Runs in and Gets Kicked in the Face.” Wu has never been at the forefront of his own story, until Karen comes into his life and he is thrown into the spotlight, completely unscripted.

Wu’s experience in Interior Chinatown is not a unique one. American society is set up to favor the majority, as Wu explains through his telling of Black and White. He says of white and black Americans, “They get hero lighting, designed to hit their faces just right. Designed to hit White’s face just right, anyway. Someday you want the light to hit your face like that. To look like the hero. Or for a moment to actually be the hero.” We live in a world where media and stories and  conflict are quite literally black and white, and the people outside of those archetypes are often cast to the side. Wu, as an Asian American man, falls within that group of outsiders. The black and white society is so deeply ingrained in him that he fails to recognize his own individuality, describing himself in the ways that a stranger passing him on the street might. He tells his story in and from the background of what he thinks is the bigger picture. This experience, the one of feeling like one is living in the background, is universal. It happens to all of us, no matter who you are. We all have times when we feel that our story isn’t one that the world wants to hear, or one that is even worth telling at all. 

Wu is not a mere character. Wu is the reader, the reader is Wu. The two are bound together, interconnected on a level more than simple second-person narration. The story of Willis Wu is one that seems as if it will always find you at the right time, when you need someone to open your eyes and tell you, your life is your own.

Self-Imposed Roles in Interior Chinatown

Throughout the course of Interior Chinatown, Willis Wu feels as if he is stuck inside a very specific box.  He sees his opportunities as very limited and completely linear.  As described on page 11, Wu’s predestined path is and always will be: Background Oriental Male, Dead Asian Man, Generic Asian Man Number Three/Delivery Guy, Generic Asian Man Number Two/Waiter, Generic Asian Man Number One, Generic Asian Man (“A star, maybe not a real, regular star”), Very Special Guest Star, and Kung Fu Guy (Wu 12).  Trapped in an already claustrophobic box, Wu makes himself even smaller and resigns himself to believe that he will never rise above Generic Asian Man.  Why, even after years of encouragement from his mother and the loss of his wife and child, does it take Wu so long to break out of this mindset?  After reading the book and seeing Wu’s journey, I do not think he is some sort of self-loathing masochist, but I do think that he internalized much of the outside negative forces in his life.  

Willis Wu’s limited view of his opportunities was a product of centuries of oppression.  As listed on page 215, the US Government did everything in its power to keep Asian Americans down.  Even after these laws were repealed, their stain remained on people’s (specifically white Americans) treatment and perception of Asian Americans.  We see this on page 152 when Willis’s parents are forced to live in the SRO because no one will rent to them because they are Asian.  These ideas and stereotypes are perpetuated in the media, which causes little Willis to consume and internalize them.  He becomes obsessed with this idea of Kung Fu Guy because it is the only viable option presented to him.  How is he supposed to develop broader goals when there are no other options presented to him besides Dead Asian Guy and Asian Waiter? Towards the end of the book, we see him struggling with not presenting these ideas to Phoebe because they have become such an integral part of his identity.  

Wu recognizes that these roles are imposed by white Americans, but he may not realize just how insidious they are.  On pages 95 through 97, Wu and Turner get into an almost argument about their roles and the system as a whole.  Turner acknowledges that he does not want to fight with Wu and that all fighting does is give an opportunity for Greene (a white woman) to swoop in and act as some sort of savior.  White Americans have forced these stereotypes onto minorities as a way to stratify them and reinforce their “otherness”.  The more factors you use to separate people, the more factors you have to keep people down.  

The whole book follows Wu’s journey of falling prey to a system designed to keep him down and submissive, but by the end of the book, he realizes what a sham it all was.  Being Kung Fu Guy brought him no happiness because it was never meant to.  Kung Fu Guy is some white man’s invention that used the person behind the name as a funny prop for fleeting entertainment.  Raising Phoebe, loving Karen, and truly listening to his parents showed Wu that he did not need to stay inside of this box, that he could escape this script written for him, and that this box he felt trapped in was not one of his own design. 

On “Kung Fu Guy” and Breaking the Template—Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Throughout Interior Chinatown, Willis Wu continually seeks to play the starring role in his own life. He aspires to the character Kung Fu Guy; he believes it is the pinnacle of the Asian American roles available to him. However, Willis does not recognize the dangers of conformity until much later. Through Willis’ experience in various roles throughout the novel, author Charles Yu elucidates that stereotypes are dangerous because they are static and incomplete. Consequently, the best solution is to break out of the template that perpetuates these roles altogether.

While Willis wants to become Kung Fu Guy, many important people in his life caution him against it. Notably, his mother tells him to “be more” near the start of the book (56). Willis is confused because he does not think he can be more. He genuinely believes Kung Fu Guy is all he could want out of life. He does not yet see the trap of conforming to the stereotypical role because he regards Kung Fu Guy so highly.

In fact, Willis does not make this realization until he becomes Kung Fu Guy (180). He achieves his childhood dream and, in so doing, he is immediately disillusioned. The role came at the expense of his identity and his family. In the court case, Willis reflects on this experience, positing that he wonders “why I wanted this so bad” because “Kung Fu Guy is just another form of Generic Asian Man” (244-245). In this scene, Yu clearly illustrates how Kung Fu Guy is a rebranded stereotype that does not offer individuality or identity. It is a continuation of the faceless bit parts Willis played before and it is predicated on racial stereotypes and biases.

Because none of the stereotypical roles ought to be life goals, Yu asserts that people ought to break out of the template. Willis demonstrates this by acting outside of the boundaries of a Generic Asian Man. For instance, the screen writing for the love story montage is as follows: “LOVE STORY FOR A GENERIC ASIAN MAN??? They’re rare, for your kind, but if you’re lucky, in a lifetime, you might get a good one” (166). This thought process expresses how Willis behaves out of the norms of the Generic Asian Man stereotype. He breaks the template and, in so doing, finds the love of his life. He lives through a similar experience with Phoebe, where he realizes that he is more than a bit player in his daughter’s life. With his daughter, he is “something better. The star’s dad. Somehow you were lucky enough to end up in her story” (202). Again, Willis breaks out of the template. He does not have to be the Kung Fu hero or star of the show. Rather, he is Phoebe’s dad, and that is enough. Thus, through both examples, Charles Yu illustrates that leaving the template and the script of a stereotype allows one to live a satisfactory life.

Cliché Interior ChinaTown

Interior Chinatown: Mixed-Reality as a Coping Mechanism

This past week, as I sat there reading, I questioned “is there even a show called Black and White?” Charles Yu does an amazing job blending elements of traditional scriptwriting with a non-fiction novel to create a story with an unreliable narrator where the lines are blurred. Where does Willis’ imagination of his Kung Fu action life end and his real-life starts? He categorizes and views life through the lens (no pun intended) of something he holds near to him, movies, in order to cope with the reality and boredom of everyday living.

I read a book eight or so years ago that was intentionally written in script format but was consistent for the whole novel. In terms of Interior Chinatown, sometimes we break from the script format and turn to a traditional novel layout. A very meta example of when this happens is during “Love Story” on page 167 when Karen Lee questions in script format “Why are we talking like this?” to which Willis replies “‘Sorry [...] Force of habit” (Yu). When Willis is nervous or bored or needs some spice in his life, he slips into the screenplay world he perceives life through. Karen Lee obviously makes him nervous, as mere pages before this he was saying how her beauty makes him want to faint. As an ex-theatre kid myself, I know that with a script in hand choices and decisions seem so much more clear-cut and natural. A play gives you who you are and your intentions. To Willis, diving into the screenplay acts as a place of refuge, of safety. This is a habit for him. Willis knows his role and what to do in it. After he reveals to her that he doesn’t know how to date, he starts to slip back into play-style narration, implying that he’s starting to go back to his old habit.

In the end, Kung Fu guy dies, and so does the show. Green and Turner can’t do it anymore, and Wu agrees. The script style ends, and it goes to the typical novel narration. Wu is no longer “Kung Fu Guy. You are Willis Wu, dad. Maybe husband” along with a laundry list of traits that are average, but okay (Yu, 256). His life isn’t dramatized anymore. He’s not playing some role, he’s playing himself. After the courtroom scene, he realizes that his life can be just that, his life, and that’s okay. Having this grand old movie backdrop is cool, but it isn’t realistic. The play and theatrics aren’t needed anymore because he is comfortable with who he is. He doesn’t need to rely on habit anymore, and he’s okay with it. To be there, present, in his life, he just has to be himself. Willis.

Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown- We Are the Audience

I was intrigued by our class discussion of Interior Chinatown, more specifically, the idea that the actors, scenes, shows and sets are really one big metaphor. When I began reading this novel, I believed that the show, Black and White was a real production taking place in the novel and that Willus Wu just lived in a place where everyone was trying to make it in the entertainment industry. After completing the book, however, I am convinced that it is something more. If we commit to the idea that Interior Chinatown is a complete allegory, then what purpose does Yu's decision serve? In other words, what is Interior Chinatown an allegory for? 

Authenticity is a theme we have seen in not only Interior Chinatown, but Americanah as well. There are many parallels between the two novels and one of the most serious of themes: Authenticity. The lack of authenticity can lead to a feeling of having no purpose and no self-acceptance. In Americanah, Dike becomes trapped in an identity limbo as he struggles to find his authentic self, resulting in his attempted suicide. We also see this in Interior Chinatown, through Allen Chen. "Allen, newly rich, with a devoted wife and well-loved and loving children, decides to move out of his house for a while... He does not feel at ease in the United States. Taiwan is not home anymore... When Allen is fifty-eight years old, he takes half a bottle of sleeping pills and never wakes up." (Yu, 149). Allen, has "made it" in America. He has made a fortune, has a loving family, and yet his struggle to still be accepted in society is what leads to his demise. Finding your authentic identity is something we have seen many minorities struggle with in Interior Chinatown and Americanah, but also in American history. The main reason for this is because white Americans have never made it an easy process. America is said to be a place of wide diversity, yet throughout history, white Americans have expected everyone to fit into one, white society. Charles Yu presents this idea in a unique way where we, the "accepted" American population, is the audience, watching and critiquing Asian-American Identity leading to one trial. In the final court scene of the novel, Willus Wu admits his guilt to conforming to white society, saying, "But at the same time, I'm guilty, too. Guilty of playing this role. Letting it define me. Internalizing the role so completely that I've lost track of where reality starts and the performance begins." (Yu, 246). The role Yu is referring to is not Willus Wu's acting role in the show, Black and White, but rather the identity role he has been playing in order to fit into white society. 

When we are the audience, watching the performances of Asian-Americans, we not only critique, but sympathize. We have seen Willus's life as an actor, forever being Kung-Fu Guy and forever trying to please white American's expectations while fitting into their society. When we see Willus with Phoebe, living his authentic life as "just dad," we, as the audience, applaud.   

the Asian American experience in Interior Chinatown

 Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is an intimate, thought-provoking story about the struggles of being an Asian Immigrant. Throughout the book, Yu uses many unique stylistic choices to convey his thoughts and feelings about topics that are not easily talked about. Yu tells this story in a second-person perspective, giving the reader the sense that they are in the head of the main character, Willis Wu. This makes the story feel very personal to Willis, as the reader gets the true uncut thoughts on life. The author also wrote many parts of this book as a script for a TV show or movie, which works particularly well as Willis Wu is an aspiring actor in Hollywood.

Throughout the novel, Willis constantly talks about how his ultimate goal is to become “Kung-Fu Guy”, a role that his father took on in the business for many years throughout Willis’s childhood. Many of his peers in the Chinatown community he lived in also shared this dream, and thought of Kung-Fu guy as the most desirable position in their society. Despite this, Willis’s mother, who was an actress throughout Willis’s life, knew that Willis could do more with his life. After Willis is practicing his kung-fu in their small, cramped apartment, Willis’s Mother says “Don’t Grow up to be Kung Fu Guy… Be More” (Yu 56). Willis’s desire for this role is self limiting in the fact that society has placed a cap on how far Asians can go in the acting industry. A role such as “Kung-Fu Guy” plays into Asian stereotypes. Asians are only viewed by their race and cannot be in a role as a normal person. Willis’s mom understands this through her and her husband’s experience and knows that her son can do more. She wants her son to break the social norms placed on them and become a full American, rather than be viewed as a weird immigrant.

The end of the novel is the first time the reader actually gets to see Willis break free of the chains put on him by society. In this section, Willis is put on trial for stealing a car, but this trial quickly turns from a prosecution of Willis into the author’s chance to rant and put his real emotions behind his writing. Willis and his lawyer, older brother, both talk about the Asian American experience in America. Willis, in his final remarks to the jury, asks, “If someone showed you my picture on the street, how would you describe it? You might say, an Asian fellow. Asian dude. Asian man. How many of you would say: that’s an American?” (Yu 250). Willis clearly feels displaced and out of touch in America, despite living his entire life there. This feeling by Willis is likely shared by hundreds of thousands of Asian Americans, who are all viewed as aliens and immigrants in their home country. I think this book does a great job, especially in the final act, of capturing Yu’s feelings about how Asian Americans are treated in society.

Interior Chinatown - The Use of Script Writing

In the novel Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, script writing is utilized to tell the story of Willis Wu and his various roles in Chinatown. Throughout the novel, it can be difficult to tell if the characters are reading from their script or if it is real-life interactions. This style is consistent throughout because Willis himself struggles to find his identity. He is constantly playing different roles to explore himself; however, in reality it is only when he goes off script and breaks the "template," when he is truly finding himself.

Willis aspires to be Kung Fu Guy which is what he sees to be the most successful and fulfilling role. He believes he can achieve a sense of belonging if he gets this role. Willis does not know of any more roles due to a broken system that promotes imprisonment in racial roles. Thus, Willis is trapped in his interior Chinatown and does not know any better. The quote "You never really leave Golden Palace, even in your dreams" (Yu 47), affirms this statement that societal pressures and the stereotypes they have placed on Asian Americans force them to stay enclosed in a room where the ceiling is the highest they can go. Willis does not know there is more beyond the ceiling as he is actively pursuing the Kung Fu Guy role, even when told not to. 

Blurring the lines between script and off-script confuses readers - this reflects how Willis is also confused with his identity. In fact it is not until the end of the novel that Willis finally breaks his template and decides to become just a dad. This is symbolized through the writing as it is prominent that it is not on script as Willis makes this decision. "No show. No plot. No world. Just characters. Golden Palace dismantled. The sky up above" (Yu 256). By choosing to be a dad, Willis breaks the ceiling and the shows finally end. He finally escaped the Golden Palace and it is evident that he is living his real-life now. He does not have any lines that will hold him back, he can create his own as his story develops. Therefore, the script is no longer needed as this is the end and beginning for Willis. 

Intersectionality of Race and Gender

    The clear issue that we follow throughout Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is race and how it affects Willis Wu’s opportunities in life. He’s stuck in the roles that society has allotted for him based on racist stereotypes. But, Willis fails to realize how gender is an important factor in women’s life experiences, especially Asian women. While race does inevitably play a large role in how society views an individual and how they experience life, ultimately gender plays a role in worsening women’s life experiences by shrinking them down to just their physical appearance. Yu successfully portrays this through the characters of Karen Lee and Old Asian Woman.

    When Willis and Karen have their first conversation and talk about their backgrounds, Willis is very judgemental of her looks and her supposed privilege. He mistakes her for being completely white, “Things work out pretty good for your kind [white]” (Yu 164). Furthermore, when he finds out about her heritage and how easily she can slip into different roles, he thinks she must love her life. But, she brings the situation back to reality when she says, “I can be objectified by men of all races,” (Yu 165). While Willis looks at her and sees how many roles she can play because she looks white, he fails to realize the complexity of her life as a woman. He simply dismisses her statement by restating that she can “pass for anything” (Yu 166) but doesn’t comprehend how limiting objectification can be, especially when it comes to the roles she can play. Willis himself classifies her as a “Pretty Girl” (Yu 164), confining her to a role that is only about her looks. Yu here makes the commentary that intersectionality is often overlooked by people, especially by people who are singularly affected by an oppressive system. Yu shows this through Willis’ dismissal of Karen’s experience as a woman because she looks white.

    Another woman, specifically an Asian woman, that is severely limited by her physical appearance is Willis’ mother, Old Asian Woman. At the beginning of the novel, we learn about all the roles she plays throughout her life and most of them are related to physical appearance. She plays roles such as Pretty Oriental Flower, Asiatic Seductress, and Beautiful Maiden Number One (Yu 8). What we notice upon observation is that most of these titles reduce her down to her race, her beauty, or both. This phenomenon is once again observed when she recounts her role as a nurse’s assistant and is sexualized by the patients, some calling her a “China doll” (Yu 134). In this part of the novel, Yu points out how Willis’s mother is forced into roles that are stereotyped both by race and gender. She is not just a seductress, she is an Asiatic Seductress. Along the same line, she’s not just a pretty flower, she’s a Pretty Oriental Flower. This is important to highlight because Asian women are sexualized and fetishized by Western countries, leading them to be viewed from a very limited perspective. 

 

Importance of Karen Lee

    In Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown, the author has used the usage of written montages and his own movie scenes to describe who people area and to introduce more backstory to a character. He wrote a montage of Older Brother's rise and his story to Kung Fu Guy. The author also wrote a movie scene on the backstory of his parents falling in love and how his father became Sifu and Kung Fu Guy. Another montage he wrote about was his relationship with Karen Lee in the 45 days that he was dead. However, I found that the romantic montage Willis wrote about his relationship with Karen Lee was comparatively less about the other character and had more about himself.

    When Willis had his montage of Older Brother, in the writing one can see the awe and respect people had towards him. "Older Brother was the inverse. Not a legend but a myth" (Yu 24) Older Brother is being compared to Bruce Lee and even respected to an even higher level. If Older Brother had made it any bigger the people of the SRO would've worshipped him. Willis makes him out to be an all-around guy where "everyone admired his level of comfort, moving in and out of language and subculture..." (Yu 26). He even goes on to explain the influence he has everywhere with everyone. Willis is brimming with respect and admiration for Older Brother and has all these details of different situations of him. All of these stories are about the Older Brother and little about his personal experiences and how he changed.

    The montage differs with Karen Lee as it seems more informal and a recount of a real situation rather than speaking about an idol. At first he is struck with awe demonstrating his surprise and his admiration for her. For the first three pages it's just information about their first date when he learns about her background, her family, etc. (Yu 167-170). These details are things he all learned about her and demonstrates how he is beginning to learn more and admire more about Karen. Willis even writes his own thoughts about the moment of "you really noticed me? You want to ask her that but you don't." (Yu 169). For once Willis is experiencing getting noticed by someone else and noticing him while he wasn't Kung Fu Guy or Older Brother.

    I think the importance of Karen was that Willis was getting a glimpse of being seen for who he is and not just as Generic Asian Man or special guest. He is being noticed for his individuality and has someone who recognizes that he has problems too. For once Willis is not in the back anymore and is actually seen by someone else other than his family. He is almost living in a dream until he goes back to work and is no longer dead. Even though work and his fixation for the role of Kung Fu Guy made him take Karen for granted, for those 45 days, Karen showed Willis what it truly meant to be seen and to be loved in a way that was better than whatever Kung Fu Guy would have offered him. 

Interior Chinatown - Becoming an Individual

    Throughout Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown, much is made of Kung Fu Guy as a symbol of the pinnacle of success for an Asian Americans. As the plot unfolds though, it becomes clear that becoming Kung Fu Guy merely continues to reinforce the status quo, one that rids Asians of individuality, and the only way to break free of this framework is to reject the premise that the role is the greatest honor available for an Asian.

    Throughout the novel, Willis’ goal to become Kung Fu Guy doesn’t exist in a vacuum but defines basically all of Chinatown’s male residents. Willis' father, for instance, after climbing the ladder for years, was eventually made a Kung Fu master, but is still unsatisfied thereafter because “despite the bigger check, the honorable title, the status in the show … nothing has changed” (159). He is still seen as an Asian man and expected to act as such. At the beginning of the novel, chronologically after these events, Willis’ father is introduced to the reader as a bit part actor, the world forgetting who he was. Willis, knowing his father’s fate, recognizes the futility in becoming Kung Fu Guy, explaining to the other Asian men he works with that if one of them is made Kung Fu Guy, they may get some more screen time and some more money but nothing more before they fall into obscurity (60). Based on this assessment early in the novel, the reader could assume that Willis, if given the opportunity to transcend the system he has grown up in all his life, he would take it. However, when presented with this opportunity in the form of his wife, Karen’s, television show that would relocate their family out of Chinatown, Willis subverts this expectation, remains in Chinatown, and continues pursuing becoming Kung Fu Guy because the title “is what someone like me (Willis) has available to him” (179). Willis doesn’t pursue the Kung Fu Guy role because he thinks it will bring him long term success, he has evidence to the contrary, but because he believes that there are no other goals available to him. In subscribing to this idea, Willis is in danger of falling into the same trap as his father, only breaking free of that idea when he becomes Kung Fu Guy himself and realizes he was “still in a show that doesn’t have a role for [him]” (180). Before, the understanding that Kung Fu Guy wouldn’t bring long term prosperity or honor was not enough for Willis to abandon his pursuit of the role because it was, nevertheless, still the greatest honor available to him within the framework he viewed the world through. It is only after he realizes that he is guilty of letting his roles define him, just like his father, and that there are greater honors available, that he breaks free (246). He becomes, in this moment, not Generic Asian Man or Kung Fu Guy, as he’s been, but his own person.

    

 

Interior Chinatown and the Theme of Black and White

              In the story Interior Chinatown, the reader is often brought back to the theme of “Black and White.” This theme touches on the idea that throughout America, people see things with the idea that there is a “Point A” and a “Point B” and do not seem to look for things in between. Interior Chinatown demonstrates this theme through race and the concept of what people are and aren’t supposed to be.    

                The idea of race is demonstrated in the production of Black and White. In this production, a Caucasian female detective and an African American male detective work together and try to solve the murder of an Asian man. However, they never seem to be interested in how the man died; they are interested in flirting with one another. This changes when Special Guest Character arrives. That is because they notice who he is and acknowledge him by asking, “Wu. Any relation?” (Yu 87). By asking this question, they were characterizing these two people as one and identifying them as the same just because they were both Asian. The TV producers characterized one of the Asian men as a character that was deemed to be unimportant due to the detective’s lack of interest in his death. From there, they disrespected both the man who was dead and Special Guest Character by assuming they were related just because they were both Asian. They did not really care to look deeper than what was placed in front of them and automatically assumed a general idea just based on the two men’s initial appearance. It is important to see how this is a big issue because there are more than just these two races, and the idea that people are stuck in such a close-minded way of thinking about this is the reason for many issues that people of other races face conflict in America.

            Throughout the story, Willis Wu constantly looks at what he is supposed to become. He strives to become “Kung Fu Guy,” and he will not be satisfied with being anything other than that. This appears to be a common goal for many Asian men throughout the book as these have always been the way that strong Asian leaders have been depicted in American films and is the only main role they are generally really seen as. When looking at the Asian women however, they do not have this type of role that they can work up to. When Willis is talking to Karen, she brings up the fact that because she is not White, the role that she gets is “Ethnically Ambiguous Woman Number One,” (Yu 164) and that she “can be objectified by men of all races” (Yu 165). The idea that the directors are looking to cast her based on what she can bring physically and not what she can bring in other ways is an issue in the system. If there is no goal to work hard or to work to be a certain type of character, the people in the industry are being rewarded better roles based on little to no effort and just attraction on its own. Both the role of “Kung Fu Guy” and the idea of casting Asian women based on appearance shows the issue of “Black and White” as the roles outside of these have not seemed to allow them to participate.

Yu's Interior Chinatown: What does it mean to be Asian?

 

Death is a Necessity: Interior Chinatown

     Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown follows the pre-written life of Willis Wu, an American  Asian male. He has many roles. Background Oriental Male, Dead Asian Man, and Generic Asian Man (3,2,1). Eventually these lead to Kung Fu Man, yet scripted death tears this away and leaves Wu in the background. Although, Wu stayed in the background while portraying each assigned role. Death, in the script, offers a break in character. Yu writes, "...if you never die- if you play the same role too long- you start to get confused. Forget who you really are" (Yu 130). Willis Wu's father, Ming Chen Wu, is a prime example of this. 

    Ming Chen Wu works his way through the same roles as Willis Wu. Eventually he became the kung fu master, a legend among the people of Chinatown (Yu 160). As Ming Chen Wu becomes accustomed to this role, he morphs into it while losing his original identity. Willis Wu is left with Old Asian Man as a father, and Willis struggles to connect with the character he has become. However, Willis's mother's characters die frequently, and he is granted a temporary full-time mother (Yu 130). 

    Pretty Asian Hostess, or Wu's mother, dies frequently at the Fortune Palace. Because of this, she is able to rediscover Dorothy Wu. She spends more time with her son, and she does not have a group of people to entertain. Dorothy is forced to focus on herself in these moments and realize life outside of a script. Yet, her husband never takes these breaks. Ming Chen Wu becomes Kung Fu Master and eventually Old Asian Man. He is not seen as a strong father figure to Willis Wu, and he is considered incoherent and unrecognizable to people who previously knew him. Essentially, Ming Chen Wu dies because his scripted characters become his persona. 

    Later in the novel, Willis Wu almost becomes captured by a role, like his father. Yet, he escapes the role and kills Kung Fu Guy by becoming "dad" (Yu 255). By killing his character, Willis Wu lives. The scripted format of the novel shuts off, and life appears normal and less painful. Willis Wu does not contemplate his every move, but instead he watches his daughter grow up. His character needed to die so that he could control his life. Without Kung Fu Guy's death, Willis Wu would have eventually morphed into Old Asian Man. 

    

    Side note: I do not think life in the SRO is glorious. The quality of life there is horrendous, but it's better than falling into the mindless stereotypical character that the United States pushes. Don't you think? 

Parents in Interior Chinatown

A good amount of Interior Chinatown is spent focusing on Willis Wu’s parents, both their personal backgrounds, their relationship with Wilis, and where they are today. Arguably, the main character of Act I of the novel is not Willis, it’s his father Ming-Chen Wu, or as Willis refers to him, Sifu. Sifu starts and ends the novel distant from his ex-wife and child, living alone in squalor, with only occasional visits from Willis to ensure that he doesn’t wither away, alone in the dark. This all stems from the unhealthy relationship Ming-Chen had with becoming Kung-Fu Guy. In the words of Willis, “He’d played his role for so long he’d lost himself in it,” (17) and “He’d always be Your Father, but somehow was no longer your dad.” (17) Because of Ming-Chen’s obsession with getting to the peak of Asian male acting, he abandoned his responsibilities as a dad, leaving his relationship with the people who loved him fractured and broken, held together only by obligation. This is best fleshed out when Willis is walking through the family’s backstory. After Ming-Chen gets cast as a Kung Fu Guy, Willis describes his father as “gone. [Dorothy’s] husband is gone. They took him away from her. He is lost now, in his work, in who they made him… This is how she lost her husband. How you lost your dad.” (160)

 

The parallels to Willis and his father become stronger as Willis becomes successful, and gets close to the Kung Fu Guy role. After he and Karen are married and have Phoebe, and Karen suggests they move to the suburbs, he says he will follow shortly, but he can’t up and leave when he’s so close to his life’s work, becoming Kung Fu Guy. After he gets the part, after years of separation from his wife and child,  he realizes he’s messed up. “You stop to consider what you are doing. Still playing a part that was handed to you, written for Asian Man. You understand: you’ve made a mistake. The biggest mistake of your life.” (181) In this moment, Willis realizes he’s become his father, he has let his meaningless work gain importance over what really matters: family. After this, he desperately attempts to grow closer to his child, attempting to avoid becoming Sifu, living alone in the dark forever. Only after the trial does Willis truly break away from that fate, reconciling with his ex-wife Karen, and transitioning his life’s purpose from being Kung Fu Guy to being Willis Wu, dad. As this transition happens, we also see the rebirth of Ming-Chen, away from Sifu to Grandpa as he interacts with his granddaughter at the Golden Palace. Gaining closeness with Phoebe saves the Wu men, allowing them to shed the Kung Fu Guy stereotypes that have been drilled into them, and allowing them to try to become family men. 

 

Interior Chinatown

     Throughout the novel of Interior Chinatown each character can be categorized by their role(s) within the production of "Black and White". I found it interesting how names truly give an individual an identity, yet in the book the names mentioned within the production were primarily Green and Turner - both being the two lead roles. Every other individual was labeled by their job and/or ethnicity. Within the script for "Black and White" Willis is first seen as playing the Special Guest Star, yet Green still refers to him as the "Asian Guy" to which Willis feels contemplates to himself, "Two words that define you, flatten you, trap you and keep you here" (94). Within this point of the novel, it is apparent that being Asian-American is what defines these characters, even if they make their way through the hierarchy of roles like the Special Guest Star they will always be seen as their ethnic background by the lead roles. Names not only act as an individual' identity, but failing to use one's true name is seen as dehumanizing and degrading to the person. The inability to properly address the Asian actors within the "Black and White" storyline further demonstrates the trend of dehumanization faced by the Asian actors and how little attention is given to this issue by the lead actors, who are either white or black. As a result Asian Americans within the book and in reality feel boxed in and trapped by their ethnic background.

    Later on in the novel, we see in the trial that Willis is referred to as "You" in the script for "Black and White." During his time in trial, he gives his perspective of the difference in being Generic Asian Man and Kung Fu Guy being none and that both roles were exactly similar in terms of their implications. Willis further this argument by stating, " I'm guilty of it as anyone. Fetishizing Black people and their coolness. Romanticizing White women. Wishing I were a White man. Putting myself into this category" (246). It is apparent how much this stereotype of a "Generic Asian Man" has forced Willis and many other Asian Americans to be someone that they are truly not. Even including the fact that Willis saw black people "cool" emphasizes how the media has portrayed Asian Americans to be seen as emotionless and in the background/incapable of being more than their generic role. With this comes the idea of how these characters are addressed in terms of their names. Being given a set all-inclusive name for most of their roles, many Asian Americans like Willis are seen as wanting to be more yet never attaining more in their role besides being a different extra in the script (or in terms of society more than their Asian background).

Racism in Americanah

 

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a novel that exemplifies confidence, integrity, finding identity, and love. This post touches upon the racial implications Ifemelu faces and how she finds her identity through these experiences. 

Ifemelu doesn’t experience the complex racial politics until she moves to America to better her life. One of the first racial biases that she faces is with her hair, “I have to take my braids out for my interviews and relax my hair… If you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional”. This conversation between Aunty Uju and Ifemelu makes her realize how one must lose their Nigerian authenticity to be able to fit in and become successful. Ifemelu then starts to question her choice to come to America. Additionally, hair serves as a symbol in Americanah to portray her struggle for confidence and identity as a Nigerian immigrant and black American. There is inherent racism when black women are forced to relax their hair to look like white women’s hair. 

One of the most apparent experiences of racism is when Ifemelu goes to a party and was taken aback by someone saying, “race is not an issue”. Ifemelu’s honest and blunt reply to her “The only reason you say that race was not an issue is that you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where the race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black, and I only became black when I came to America” This portrays her identity of not being superficial like her peers and saying what’s on her mind. 

These instances show how Ifemelu faces racism in America and how she stood up to people in her community and otherwise. Adichie used symbols, strong literacy, and characterization to emphasize the theme of racism.

Americanah: On Containing Multitudes

 Coming into this novel, I knew two things about author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: her significance as a feminist figure, and the recent criticism she received after a blog post she wrote in response to some past controversy. I’ve read the blog, and I have opinions about the blog, but I cannot sit here and write about how the blog sits with me — I must sit here and write about how Americanah sits with me. 

Americanah is a book I simply never got around to for a very long time, and by the time I did, my experience was tainted. I came into this novel with an eye far more critical than it had been just a few months ago, and instead of admiring the merits, I was magnifying the faults. 

On page 403, Paula reads aloud from one of Ifemelu’s blogs, which describes how unhelpful assertions such as ‘I can’t be racist if I have black friends’ and ‘But slavery ended centuries ago’ are, and how they belittle and invalidate the still-lived experiences of American Black people. In the concluding paragraph, Ifemelu writes, “Try listening. maybe. Hear what is being said. And remember that it’s not about you.” But this very courtesy Ifemelu describes, Adichie does not extend herself to the trans community. 

Americanah is a powerful story about race and identity by an author who at times struggles to practice what she preaches, and because humans are fatally dualistic in terms of good and bad, we struggle to see just how deeply human it is to have grey area. But coming into this mentality gave me an interesting perspective on this novel that probably would’ve taken me a bit longer to find otherwise.

One of the foundational pillars of Americanah is the theme of authenticity. And I bring up authenticity because it’s messy. Being true to oneself and one’s values is difficult, especially when those things can sometimes be at odds with the world around you, and even at arms with each other. Ifemelu struggled to take pride in where she came from in a society that punishes those who fail to assimilate with where they go. 

It’s in the first pages that Ifemelu’s journey with authenticity begins for readers. Adichie writes, speaking of Ifemelu’s blog, “The more she wrote, the less sure she became. Each post scraped off yet one more scale of self until she felt naked and false (Adichie 6).” I tend to be quite liberal when marking quotes that stand out to me, but this idea of rewriting herself to appease others is one that I constantly come back to, and one that Ifemelu constantly grapples with. She lies to the hairdressers that she’s been in America longer than is true, she fakes an American accent, she relaxes her hair. These things are not who she is, but they are things she does out of either necessity to survive as a non-American Black person, or out of some sense of obligation to do so in order to be accepted and thrive as such.

So, in short? Sometimes people are hypocrites. Sometimes they do things that contradict what they say or believe. We contain multitudes, or whatever the poets used to say. And that’s ultimately what Americanah is: the story of a woman who is trying to figure out how all the pieces of who she is fit into the person she wants to be, while still trying to figure out who that person is.