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.
I agree with you that a definite purpose of the script and screen play style writing is to confuse the reader. It can be difficult to tell which characters are reading from a script, and which are acting out of their true thoughts and identity. Yu uses the reader’s confusion to make a point about Willis’s struggles to find his identity. The reader often becomes unsure about the personalities of the characters because their actions fluctuate between their true actions, and those coming from the written script they follow. The script confuses Willis because he starts to lose his true identity before occasionally breaking the template and displaying his true self. An early example of this self-realization is when Willis breaks out his kung-fu moves when a fight breaks out on set. He reflects to himself, “That was some Older Brother-caliber fighting right there. You didn’t even know you were capable” (Yu 111). Willis has played a Generic Asian man for so many years that he never noticed how skilled he had become at kung fu. Your example of Willis becoming a dad and realizing his true identity shows further personal growth for him. I also thought it was interesting that the script only disappears completely once Willis accepts his real life outside of his Generic Asian man role.
ReplyDeleteJacy, you have made an excellent choice for your topic in this blog posting. I find the use of the script-writing style of text that intertwines reality with television shows to be one of the most fascinating, as well as crucial elements in Interior Chinatown. I perceived this intentional use of blurring the lines between reality and television to be a comment on societal norms for Asian-Americans. I agree with your opinion that this was done so by the author to display a sort of confusion for Willis in his path to discover his “identity”, however, I saw this as the author delivering the overlying theme that all Asians in America are seen as the same. Therefore, I believe Yu intentionally jumped from non-reality to reality sporadically in order to portray the sense that it did not matter if the show was live or not: this is how Asians are. The stereotypical box that has been designed and engrained throughout history to enclose all things Asian-American has proven to be a box that melts individualism. The script-writing style of the novel along with the many different roles Willis assumes in the story help the audience grasp the concept of what it means to be an Asian in America. It means you will always be seen as Asian above all else.
ReplyDeleteI really like your take on this subject. I never thought of the specific style of reflecting Wu’s inner conflict. The going on and off script resembles Wu’s struggle of defining his identity. Additionally, at the beginning of the book, Wu notes of all of the challenges and obstacles that his own father faced from the industry. “He’d age out of his role and into the next one, his life force depleting with every exertion. Wisdom and power leaking from him with each passing day and night. He’d played his role for so long he’d lost himself in it” (17). Ultimately, Wu merely fills the role of his father both in the cinematic universe along with the real one. His childhood was witnessing his father carry the weight of societal norms while cinema slowly took over his life. Since Wu fills the role of his father on screen and in real life, he severely struggles with separating the two worlds. When the book becomes confusing at times as the reader tries to figure out what is on script and what is off script, they are actually reading Willis Wu’s thoughts. Additionally, by writing in script, it shows how acting also encompasses Wu’s whole life until he is finally able to break through and become a father in the end.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this script-ification of a novel, and I think it allows for an interesting layer of meta with how Willis and his character intertwine. I think at some points, Willis almost becomes the character. Script writing is really interesting in how it allows and almost requires descriptions to be a bit more on the nose, and with Willis also being an actor, it allows us to get lost as Willis himself does in where he ends and his character begins. Willis is so caught up in his own dreams that he starts to lose himself in them, so the readers do as well. We see this on page 117 when he describes his character being shot, but it’s as if Willis himself is being shot. It’s as if WIllis himself is dying, and in a way, he is — his dream is dying. This kind of melting together of the real and the retold reminds me a lot of Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. Synecdoche as a literary device means a part that serves to represent a whole, and I think Willis portrays this as well. He is playing a part in the bigger picture, which is his life as an Asian man in America, but eventually the lights turn off and the setting is destroyed; eventually Willis must break away from the whole to become something whole of his own.
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