Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu, a resident of Chinatown, as he tries to reach the highest role he believes an Asian man can achieve, Kung Fu Guy. We get snippets of Wu’s childhood and see him form relationships, become a father, become the child of aged parents, and develop as a human who is held back both by society and himself.
This was my first experience with Charles Yu’s writing, and I think it’s safe to say it won’t be my last. It’s my understanding that Yu likes to push boundaries with his books and experiment with different styles of presentation. This is quite evident in Interior Chinatown. Yu shows us Wu’s life as though it is a TV show rather than a man’s life. Though I greatly appreciate Yu’s innovation, there were times this pulled me out of the story to question whether what was happening was actually happening to Wu or was part of the show Wu works on. I think this was intentional, but it was also slightly distracting. By no means does the unorthodox writing style discredit the book. I thought it was well written and could be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.
I don’t know that my reaction to Interior Chinatown was typical. I say this for two reasons. One, I’m not sure it was intended to be as emotional a read as I got out of it. Two, I don’t usually have as emotional a reaction to books as I did with Interior Chinatown. Right from the start as Wu is describing his relationships with his parents, I was tearing up, and this melancholy stuck with me throughout the rest of the book.
Charles Yu addresses heavy themes all the way through Interior Chinatown including aging parents, budding relationships, parenthood, racism, and classism. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most conversations about people of color and racism often do not include Asian nationalities or others who are white passing. Yu tackles this in every chapter as Wu is faced with restrictions society puts on him because of his race as well as restrictions he puts on himself because he doesn’t feel his struggles are as significant as those of other races.
As a white person, I try to be the best ally I can. It is something I am constantly learning to do better and expand my knowledge. Yu raised several points where I realize I have been lacking, emphasizing how vital it is to be a reader in today’s world. There are important lessons to be learned in all types of literature. One of the most important takeaways from Interior Chinatown for me personally was that I need to do a better job amplifying voices of color equally across the spectrum regardless of how white passing a person of color is. This seems obvious in writing, but I know I get bogged down supporting one person or one group and miss cues where I could be a better ally for others.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.
This is a book that I am not at all familiar with. It sounds like it was an interesting read. You had a book club meeting for this book, right? Were there any good takeaways from the discussion?
Yes, I did! I don’t know that it’s one I would have normally just picked up without the encouragement, but I’m so glad I read it. It was interesting to hear the group’s takeaways since I was so emotionally invested in it. I was surprised to hear how many people thought it was silly or just couldn’t get into it and DNF’d it. But for the most part, it sounded like people enjoyed it and thought it was particularly poignant as we’re seeing more violence being perpetrated against Jewish and asian populations in the news recently.
Comments are closed.