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  Even after these laws were repealed, their stain remained on people’s (specifically white Americans) treatment and perception of Asian Americans.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.