![]() On the one hand, it unearthed some feelings I generally try to keep buried, being a first-generation Chinese American immigrant myself. To be honest, it left me a bit conflicted afterwards. ![]() I can see why this book received so much recognition. Yet he is relegated to the sidelines, never able to be the star of his own narrative. ![]() It tackles this through a heavily metaphoric screenplay about a Generic Asian Man forever stuck in the background of a police procedural called "Black and White." He is not privileged like White, nor is he oppressed like Black. Why doesn't this face register as American?At its core, Interior Chinatown is a meditation on the Chinese American immigration and assimilation experience. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration- Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet. Or is it?Īfter stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
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