Evelyn Bernal

Professor Montoya-Dane

English 50/ English 1A

7 December 2021

Interior Chinatown is about Willis, an Asian American actor who is tired of being in

the background. He is tired of being cast as “Generic Asian Man” or even of the fact that the

best leading role he could get is “Kung Fu Guy”. Even though the book is written as if it were

a screenplay, it represents the reality of racism in a not so direct way. It shows Willis’s

journey as both an actor and an Asian-American man struggling to come into the spotlight. In

both the book and the author's Q&A with the SRJC community, Yu tries to show racism from

the point of view of a background character who normally does not have a voice.

One of the things that stood out to me most was where Yu got his inspiration. As he

stated in the Q and A: “the original thing that inspired me is you know, my parents and their

cohort their generation that immigrated here. Also, you know, my wife is Chinese American.

Her family has been here longer in the US. She's from the bay area, and I heard stories from

her family, you know, and she grew up . . . I spent a lot of time in Oakland Chinatown

growing up and there's all of these sort of experiences and stories that I've heard over the

years from the generations above me that were inspiring or sometimes heartbreaking.” (Yu

Q&A 13:34). I think that it’s amazing how his parents are the ones that inspired him to write

the novel because of how their lives were and just all the stories he was able to hear from his

parents. His wife’s stories also impacted him because of how her life was and as well as he

lived in Oakland Chinatown and he was able to experience things.

 I think that it is important that he takes these experiences from his life and those of

others to really get the point across on the racism you can be accustomed to growing up as an

Asian-American or of any minority. I myself grew up as a Mexican- American and I know

firsthand how frustrating it can be being on the sidelines because of the color of your skin.

Also, during the Q&A Yu talked about why he chose to use certain sometimes

ordinary moments to add to the realness of the story. “it's sometimes like the most kind of I

guess you'd call them ordinary or quiet moments in their lives, and yet all of the things

they've gone through I just really wanted to find a way to express them as humans, that these

stories get told, because I think again when I was growing up you didn't see this kind of story

on TV, you know. You can see it in movies.” (Yu Q&A 13:25) I agree that we don’t see

most things on TV, or even in movies. Asian- Americans are portrayed as food delivery

people, or working in nail salons or doing kung fu. As such Mexican – Americans are

portrayed as gang-bangers or Narcos or illegals when this is not the case at all. When we do

see a Mexican- American as a lead role, he usually does not speak English well and is there

for a punchline about crossing the border without papers.

Throughout the book, Willis struggles with how the rest of the world sees him. The

part he can’t really comprehend is how much of what he is feeling is just in his head or is it

really how people are seeing him. I think that on some level he might have internalized some

of it. I think that when you are a minority that tends to happen. You tend to assume everyone

sees you as less or as not as American as they are. Sometimes this is the case, but sometimes

it’s just because you are so used to being seen that way that you assume everyone sees you

that way.

Whether or not the thought that he is different is external or internal, that is how he

feels and this is what Charles Yu was trying to represent. "Regardless of whether it's external

or internal, Willis definitely feels like he's the 'other.' That self-consciousness is what I'm
writing about, the sense of having to perform to fit in. Not knowing exactly when I'm

performing and when I'm not is something that I have personally thought about in my life. It's

being acutely aware of being the only Asian in the room sometimes, and thinking, 'Why am I

thinking about this? Are other people thinking about this?' (CBC Books 2021)

With being a minority, there is also the added pressure to sort-of live up to

expectations. Or embody the ideal of the perfect minority. Like an Asian-American, Yu must

have felt he had to be that perfect model Asian which he portrayed using the Older Brother

character in the book. It is as if he used the character to build his perfect ideal of what he

wanted to be or what others wanted him to be growing up. I think this is something people of

all races can relate to. It is like we always feel like we are not living up to expectations when

most of the time it is just our own ideas that we are really not living up to.

The final part of the Q&A that really impacted me was when Yu was asked if he

thought things were changing for the better regarding racism against Asian-Americans. He

answered “And I know that again it's changing quickly. I really feel encouraged by a lot of

what's happened in the last few years, but still, what I really wanted to do in this book was to

tell the story of this very normal life, you know, for these Asians trying to build their family

and build their lives here in America.” (Yu Q&A 15:11) This one really stood out to me

because of how many things have happened through the year. People just assumed that

Asian-American were to blame due to Covid and the assumptions that it originated in China.

It is like that everywhere. People make assumptions about something or some race and it

skyrockets. So while there have been changes, I think it’s the same in a lot of ways as well.

That is why I like what Yu said about no matter where we are from and where we move from,

we all want to build a family and build their lives here in America or where’re we think is the

best place to live. For me this is personal because my family came here to build a better life. I
think many can relate. I like how Charles Yu wanted the novel to be about how real life is

and not make up stories he really put in what he has experienced and heard from family

members. Even though he wrote it as if it were a screenplay, it felt real and relatable and I

think that is what he wanted to do, and to me, he accomplished it.

Works Cited

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/charles-yu-s-interior-chinatown-looks-

at-anti-asian-racism-through-the-eyes-of-a-hollywood-actor-1.6026551

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/11/20/2142607/visiting-interior-chinatown

TRANSCRIPT OF SRJC Q&A WITH CHARLES YU