Dreams of Assimilation

Interior Chinatown 

by Charles Yu

“Unofficially, we understood. There was a ceiling. Always had been, always would be. Even for him. Even for our hero, there were limits to the dream of assimilation, to how far any of you could make your way into the world of Black and White.”    ― Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown




I was drawn to Interior Chinatown because it was awarded the National Book Award and I wondered why it beat out Shuggie Bain, among others, for that award. . Only later did I realize I had previously read the author's earlier novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, a tongue in cheek romp about the dangers of time travel. In my reading of his new book I found that Interior Chinatown evokes George Saunders' amusing and emotional short stories and films like 'The Truman Show.

The protagonist of this unusual novel, Willis Wu, doesn't see himself as the hero of his own story: he's just another Generic Asian Man. He is occasionally cast as a Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even as a Disgraced Son, but he is usually reduced to a prop. Every day, he leaves his cramped room in a Chinatown SRO and walks inside the Golden Palace restaurant, where the procedural cop show Black and White is under continual production. He has a small part here, too, but he aspires to be Kung Fu Guy, the most prestigious role available to anyone who looks like him. Why is that the case?

Willis finds himself thrust into a larger world than he's ever known after falling into the spotlight, learning not only the secret history of Chinatown, but also the history of the United States. In relaying this history the author uses a distinctive television screenplay structure. It isn't simply an amusing eccentricity; it also serves to emphasize how strongly Hollywood's rules affect everything in Willis's life, both on and off set. Every person is typecast into a specific position based on their appearance, and in order to be a star, Willis must never stop performing. He tames every aspect of himself to ensure that he's only ever presenting what's expected of Generic Asian Man on the outside. Only when he gets there does he find it's still the same—except now he has the added responsibility of preserving Chinatown's orientalist myth and the people who live there, further confirming their status as outsiders.

This novel is a satire and a commentary on the way we view others and ourselves. What is your identity and what one would you prefer to show to others? Or, perhaps you are comfortable in your own skin, whatever that may be.