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?
I enjoyed reading this post and I agree with your statement about how Yu uses death as a way to escape a role. The idea of getting confused and forgetting who you are when you play a role is interesting to me. It made me think about how immigrants must feel when they come to America and try to conform to American society. I wonder if they ever forget their identity and get confused about who they are after changing themselves to fit in. It's difficult to think that someone would forget about their past culture when they relocate to a new society. Maybe this is what Yu is symbolizing when he talks about acting in a role you don't belong in. Maybe the idea of "dying" represents the idea of returning to your real home the way some immigrants often do. In class, we talked about how when his mother died in her role she was able to be alive in her real-life beyond the screen. It saddens me to think about how much identity is being taken from her as she plays these roles. It's difficult because the roles Asians are given are limiting and not representative of true Asian culture which is why it is easy to forget their identities.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of our class discussion today. You dove even deeper into the idea that death is a necessary part of a character because otherwise, you yourself will die with the character. Your post was intriguing to me because of the significant difference in the lives of Wu’s mother and Ming Chen Wu. Wu’s mother was able to keep her own identity due to the periods of time she was able to have off during her work while Ming Chen Wu made it his entire being. Because of this, Wu’s mother was left with a life once she was too old to hold her former position, while Old Asian Man is exactly that, a man whom no one recognizes anymore. I understand this to be why Wu’s mother wants him to be more in life than a King Fu Guy and he ends up becoming dad. “You are not Kung Fu Guy. You are Willis Wu, dad. Maybe husband” (Yu,256).
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in your side note as well. I obviously agree that the quality of life is horrific and after reading your post, I do agree that it is a better life than being forced into the American stereotypes.
I think death is a really interesting theme in this novel, and I was really glad to read your post on it, but I don’t think Willis’ character’s death allowed Willis himself to live; I think Willis died, but only intangibly. A part of him died and was reborn as something new. It reminds me a lot of the concept of ego death in Jungian psychology, wherein one essentially loses sight of themselves in order to undergo a fundamental transformation. Ego death is also part of the trope of the "hero's journey," and I think we see this a lot for Willis throughout the novel, best exemplified through the actual character he plays on a TV show. Willis is a person entirely preoccupied with his dream of becoming an actor, playing a part in some way. He aspires to be Kung Fu Guy, who is the "Asian equivalent" (for lack of a better term) of a hero, and the only place Willis sees attainable representation of himself. But then his character dies (117-125), and I think this is where his own ego death begins. He realizes that the reality of his dream is ultimately being disposable, that the dream itself is unsustainable. Ultimately, maybe that part of Willis needed to die in order for him to get away from the same old tropes and stereotypes assigned to Asian Americans by American society, to finally break the cycle.
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