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.
I think that it is also important to note the ways in which Charles Yu shows how within the constraints of America's black and white views of racism, there isn't much room for nuance for Anyone, most of all underrepresented groups. I keep thinking back to how at the beginning of the story, when describing the way that Black and White are presented, Yu makes sure to point out that "Black and White always look good. A lot of it has to do with the light. They're the heroes. They get hero lighting, designed to hit their faces just right. Designed to hit White's face just right, anyway" (Yu, 11). Even when expressing Willis's frustrations regarding never getting to be the hero, Yu makes sure to show the audience that things aren't as clear-cut out as they might seem. It is interesting to me how the novel occasionally comes back to the tensions between Asian and Black Americans, and how they are pit against each other by American society as well. When Willis and Turner confront each other during Willis's stint as a Special Guest Star, Yu refuses subtlety and directly name drops the concept of the Model Minority, one that the United States has historically used to put a rift between Asian Americans and Black Americans in the past without ever actually doing anything beneficial for either group. Turner even talks about how they're being used for the sake of making it so that "Green gets to be the bigger person" (Yu, 97) than the two of them. Within this fictional-but-real world, Yu shows that no one is Really a winner when they simply play the roles lain out for them.
ReplyDeleteThroughout “Interior Chinatown,” the readers get to see the struggle of stereotyped individuals numerous times. Your blog does a good job of establishing the divide between reality and people’s perceptions. I like how you pointed out how many people have a hard time looking for things in between. This can be seen well through the characters who play Black and White and their interactions with Generic Asian Man. The first example that comes to mind is at the beginning of the novel when in response to an asian man’s death, Black says it must be, “Some kind of cultural thing” (p. 41). Another example would be when Wu “forgot to do the accent” (p. 75). To this, he is told he speaks english well. Both of these examples of racism towards asians leads Willis Wu to only expect to be the background character and if he is lucky, Kung Fu Guy. Turner, who is also known as Black, even points out at the end of the novel, “He internalized a sense of inferiority”(p. 224). This shows the damage that stereotypes and only seeing others through a narrow lens can do. Only looking at someone’s race and seeing everything as black and white creates a sense of inferiority in individuals, who do not fit into a certain mold or expectation.
ReplyDeleteYour comment regarding the grouping of all Asian-Americans stood out to me. In the book Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu we know that one of the main ideas was how Asian-Americans can be ignored in times of need and grouped together due to the way that they look. The stereotypes of language/accent, food, etc. are hardships that Asian-Americans face on the daily. When we stereotype people by the way that they look no matter race, gender, etc. we ignore who they are as a person and character should be the number one trait that is looked for. In the story we do not see Willis Wu’s character until he goes off-script, which is when he was taken a liking to by his peers (Yu 145). For this moment it is evident that Wu does have more to him than what he shows on the surface level as he tries to achieve his ultimate goal of Kung-Fu guy. When Wu is given the chance to tell his story of the past it truly shows how hard his family has worked and how he values his time with them more. This is important because it shows that there is more than stereotypes in society today.
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