INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu

The format of this book—a TV script—was very off-putting for me.  Plus, the author blurs the line between real life and Hollywood make-believe to the point that I was very confused.  Despite all that, he drives home the image of the Asian American stereotype, both in real life and in movies/TV shows, and the bigotry that stems from that stereotype.  Willis Wu apparently makes a living playing the role of “generic Asian man” in a cop TV series, but that label applies to his real life as well.   Several compelling truths emerge from his story.  For one thing, his great aspiration is to elevate himself to “Kung Fu Guy” in the show, and his father was in a fact a kung fu master in his day.  The fact that Willis still lives in poverty is a testament to the reality of how little he earns from these bit parts, especially since his character is always destined to die, and then he has to “stay dead” for six weeks before he can play another “generic Asian man.”   Another character in the novel is Older Brother, and I could not determine if this were some mythical successful Asian American actor or a real person in Willis’s life.  Older Brother reappears late in the novel as a lawyer who abandoned acting altogether, although Willis sees him as having achieved the ultimate pinnacle of success as “Kung Fu Guy.”  The heart of the matter is that Willis is propagating his own stereotype, even though he has to look in the mirror to remind himself that he does not look like other Americans, Black or white.