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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Interior Chinatown, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration
Performance and Identity
Stereotypes
Family and Ambition
The System
Summary
Analysis
Interior Chinatown tells the story of Willis Wu, an American actor and the son of Taiwanese immigrants. Most of the novel follows a screenplay structure, interspersing scripted scenes of TV in which Willis acts with Willis’s internal musings. The narrative frequently blurs the line between scripted scenes and reality. INT. GOLDEN PALACE. Willis Wu has longed to be “Kung Fu Guy” his whole life, but he’s currently just “Background Oriental Male.” On a casting sheet, he lists his skills, which include “Kung Fu (Moderate Proficiency)” and “Fluent in Accented English.” He also lists his credits, including “Disgraced Son,” “Delivery Guy,” and “Caught Between Two Worlds.” Willis’s mother has played the roles of “Pretty Oriental Flower,” “Asiatic Seductress,” and “Girl with the Almond Eyes.” Willis’s father has played the roles of “Wizened Chinaman,” “Egg Roll Cook,” and “Sifu, the Mysterious Kung Fu Master.”
The novel uses the metaphor of acting to suggest that a person’s identity is something they perform rather than something they innately are. From the start, readers get a sense of the book’s experimental structure and the surreal elements of the world its characters inhabit—here, Asian people literally become the stereotypes that mainstream American culture applies to them, acting out the stereotypes as though playing a part in a movie.
Active
Themes
INT. GOLDEN PALACE—MORNING. Willis explains that in the “world of Black and White” everyone who “looks like [him]” gets their start playing “Generic Asian Man.” Women are “Pretty Asian Woman.” Everyone Willis knows works at Golden Palace, which used to be called Jade Palace. The restaurant is dimly lit and decorated with fancy woodwork that might just be an “imitation” of the real thing. There’s a new drink on the menu, the “lychee margarita-tini.” Willis hasn’t had it—it costs $14. Patrons occasionally leave a little leftover in their glass, and some of the kitchen staff sneak a sip. This is dangerous though, since “the director” is always watching.
Like the Asian actors who imitate the stereotypes that white society applies to them, Golden Palace imitates white society’s vision of Asian culture, even if that vision (i.e., the restaurant’s fancy woodwork) is inauthentic. This scene also gives readers more insight into the novel’s world. On the one hand, it’s realistic—the novel’s setting is Chinatown, a place that really exists. But there are also surreal elements, as the novel seems to suggest that its characters are all taking part in a perpetually ongoing movie—they’re playing parts like “Generic Asian Man” even as they work at the Golden Palace, which seems to be both a real restaurant and a stage on which they perpetually play out these roles.
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ROLES. Willis explains that you have to work your way up to better roles. At the bottom is “Background Oriental Male,” and from there “Dead Asian Man” and “Generic Asian Man Number Three/Delivery Guy.” Some people can even become “Generic Asian Man Number One,” though this is rare. But if you’re really lucky, you get to become “Kung Fu Guy,” which is the closest to a movie star any Asian man can get. He’s “the default guy who gets trotted out whenever there’s kung fu to be done.”
INT. GOLDEN PALACE. Willis is still “Generic Asian Man Number Three/Deliver Guy.” His kung fu isn’t that great. Sifu has told him that his “drunken monkey” was almost good enough that Sifu might not be embarrassed to be seen with him in public one day. Willis longs to make Sifu proud, but it’s hard to tell what Sifu is thinking.
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OLD ASIAN MAN. Sifu isn’t really Sifu anymore—now, he’s “Old Asian Man.” The first time Willis noticed this was when he arrived a little early for their weekly lesson, and Sifu had a hard time recognizing Willis. Sifu recovered after a few moments and invited Willis inside, but Willis spent the rest of the day thinking about the confused look that Sifu gave him.
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Willis’s friend Fatty Choy tells everyone that Sifu is on food stamps and regularly looks through the trash for things to take. He saves disposable chopsticks and packets of soy sauce. He bought his old Formica kitchen table from a salvage bin at a restaurant supply warehouse. Its surface is worn down from thousands of meals Willis and Sifu have eaten together.
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When Sifu was young, he could break a cinder block with just one finger. Young Willis always braced himself for Sifu’s failure and resultant mangled hand, but it never happened. Afterward, Willis would feel proud of Sifu—and ashamed of himself for ever doubting him. Now, Willis sees that his father is no longer the man he used to be. “He’d played his role for so long he'd lost himself in it.” Instead of leaping from roofs, he falls asleep after meals. Long after reaching adulthood, Willis continued to come to Sifu for lessons, though it’s clear that the lessons are just “a flimsy pretense.” The real reason that Willis visits is to deliver the groceries, medications, and other things his father needs.
Now, Sifu apologizes about needing Willis’s help—he’d never apologize when he was a younger man, and certainly not in English. Now Sifu looks at Willis with a blank stare, apparently seeing Willis more as a “helpful stranger” than his own son and “most loyal student.” Now, their relationship is mostly just Willis being concerned with acting the right way, saying the right things, and not asking any questions; it's important for Willis to stay in character during these visits. If Willis misses a week of visits, Sifu will “sit[] in the dark” that week. He probably won’t die—but maybe he will. Still, even on the worst days, Sifu only forgets Willis for a couple minutes.
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Lately, Sifu has assumed new roles: “Old Asian Cook” and “Old Asian Guy Smoking.” It’s hard to see him in this “new phase of life.” But part of his old self remains, and everyone sees him as “all of his former incarnations.” Because of this, nobody has really noticed him age, even Willis’s mother, who is now “Old Asian Woman.” She and Willis’s father are still married, but they live separate lives. Though they once had a great romance, they “lost the plot” at some point, and their life became “an immigrant family story,” and then they were just two people trying to make it through life.
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Willis’s parents have also become poor. Now Sifu knows exactly what time restaurants in Chinatown toss out their old pork buns. He shops for food in bargain bins at the ninety-nine-cent store. Of course, nobody in Chinatown has much money to help Sifu, and Old Asian Woman has struggled to get by herself. Or this is what everyone says to make themselves feel better. Maybe if everyone would’ve helped—even a little bit—things could’ve turned out better.
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OLDER BROTHER. Older Brother got the most out of Sifu’s teachings and so should’ve been in the best position to help. He’s not Willis’s real brother—he’s “Everyone’s Older Brother.” He’s talented, smart, and popular: the “Guardian of Chinatown.” At one point, he and Sifu briefly starred together in a story about “father-and-son martial arts experts.” Older Brother never had to work his way up from “Generic Asian Man.” He was born to be “Kung Fu Guy” and eventually became him. He makes Kung Fu Guy money, too.
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Older Brother is like Bruce Lee, but not exactly For one, Bruce Lee is too “real” to be a myth. He made a whole new fighting system, Jeet Kune Do, and showed that not all Asian Men had to be Generic. But Bruce Lee “proved too much.” Normal people can’t achieve that. Older Brother is the opposite of Bruce Lee—he’s a “myth.” Willis idolized Bruce Lee, but it was Older Brother he actually wanted to be when he grew up.
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BEGIN OLDER BROTHER AWESOMENESS MONTAGE: Older Brother’s hair is always perfect. He’s also the rare Asian guy that has slightly wavy hair. His Kung Fu is top-notch, and he knows Judo and Muay Thai too. If he gets drunk enough—though he never really gets that drunk—he’ll show off his knife tricks. He’s also “five eleven and three-quarters,” which is the best height for an Asian man. He's tall enough to be noticed, even by White women, but not so tall that people would think he’s a “Mongolian freak” like Yao Ming. He’ll never lose a bar fight or a basketball game. Despite never being in a gang, the tough guys still respect him and give him his space. He’s also a National Merit Scholar and got a 1570 on the SAT.
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Everyone has a story about Older Brother. One person recalls seeing him doing chin-ups on the cross bar of a traffic signal—with one hand. It’s unclear which stories are true and which are made up. But he’s just “mythical” like that—“the ideal mix of assimilated and authentic.”
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For a while, everything was happening like it was supposed to for Older Brother. But then one day, it all stopped: he wasn’t Kung Fu Guy anymore. It was because “there were limits to the dream of assimilation,” and he’d hit the “ceiling.” But, Willis offers, perhaps this is a good thing. Because Older Brother was never really comfortable with his special standing—he didn’t relate to “Kung Fu Guy.” And his Kung Fu was too good to be made “flashy” by Hollywood. So, it’s good he never got famous: “Better to be a legend than a star.” END OLDER BROTHER AWESOMENESS MONTAGE.
