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.
I really like the metaphors you have presented here. While reading the book I felt that both the water and floating castle represented something potent yet I couldn't quite determine what this was so I am glad you were able to express this meaning. The scene with Willis and his daughter Phoebe talking about the floating castle really spoke to me in the way it presented the change in identity across generations of Chinese immigrants. When you speak about a castle without a root it made me think of the passage on page 208, "She lives here, without history, unaware of all that came before... a dream finally realized, a real American girl." I didn't really make the connection that the castle represented the American Dream, but after reading your post I see it really does. This metaphor shows this bittersweet reality of immigrants throughout time. They feel like they must assimilate into a culture in order to be accepted in their new society, yet over time this means a lot of their identity that ties them back to where they come from is lost. On the other end of this, if they don't assimilate they also struggle with their identity as they are stereotyped and objectified by society. As many works have explored, including Americanah, the "American Dream" really isn't all it seems, there's always a price to pay. The floating castle is perfect representation of this and the greater message of Interior Chinatown.
ReplyDeleteI find your argument for metaphors compelling. When reading the book myself, I noticed another parallel drawn between Kung Fu Guy and Bruce Lee. Similar to Kung Fu Guy, Bruce Lee was revered by the people of Chinatown. He was called “not a mortal so much as a deity” and used to “understand what perfection was like”. Despite his immense success, Bruce Lee barely got to live his life to the fullest - he passed at the age of 32 from a brain edema. Similarly, Willis is unable to live his life to the fullest after obtaining his status as the Kung Fu Guy. He questions “why he wanted this so bad” because he realizes that in his quest to being Kung Fu Guy, and wanting to stand out, he was really just another “form of Generic Asian Man” (244-45). Rather than carve his own path, he chose to seek the path everyone desired, and despite achieving what others couldn’t, he still had a void, just as Bruce Lee had in his life. Bruce Lee was simply another symbol for the voids that being Kung Fu Guy comes with.
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ReplyDeleteI never thought about the metaphor you used with water applying to racism against Asian Americans, but reading your blog post back, I can see how it fits so well. I think it was very insightful of you to make this connection and really shows how much attention you pay to detail. While it is apparent the novel is trying to address this racism against Asians in America, you have caused me to look at it in a new way. By also incorporating your own quote from Bruce Lee, it strengthened your argument that much more. Additionally, the suggestion you offer to "start from the floor above your room" when asking how to fix the problem of water, which you compare to racism against Asians, is very powerful. I think it is a good way to make people realize that the problem is so much larger than just one person, it takes looking at your neighbor, and your neighbor's neighbor, and so on, to really find the root of the problem, and be able to potentially fix it. With an issue such as racism, especially when it comes to Asian Americans, they are so stereotyped in America's culture. This is even represented in the show, Black and White, where in order for Willis Wu to even participate, he has to conform to his own stereotype. This is because this is what is easy for people to see, as this is the only depiction of Asian people that is represented through the media and Hollywood. People do not like things that they do not perceive to fit their mold, it makes them uncomfortable. Thus, your comparison with the water really hit home for me, since you said people do not even notice until the water "floods".
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