Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Character Analysis in Interior Chinatown

Dorothy is Willis’s mother and Sifu’s wife. She immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was a young woman and now lives in a room above the Golden Palace Chinese Restaurant. In her old age, she’s stuck playing the one-dimensional role of Old Asian Woman on Black and White. Like her husband, Sifu, Dorothy’s life in the U.S. contrasts sharply with the dreams she once had for her future there. Though she once dreamed of becoming famous and getting rich off real estate, she could only find work playing one-dimensional, stereotypical roles like “Pretty Oriental Flower” and “Girl with the Almond Eyes.” When Willis was young, Dorothy saw how fiercely he longed to become Kung Fu Guy and urged him to “Be more.”

Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Quotes in Interior Chinatown

The Interior Chinatown quotes below are all either spoken by Dorothy/Old Asian Woman or refer to Dorothy/Old Asian Woman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Be more.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 72

Explanation and Analysis:

When she was dead, she got to be your mother.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 146

Explanation and Analysis:

Your mother weeps, and dies. Weeps and dies. Weeps and doesn’t die. Just weeps. Because now, your father is no longer a person, no longer a human. Just some mystical Eastern force, some Wizened Chinaman. Her husband is gone, Wu is gone, even Young Asian Man is gone. They took him away from her. He is lost now, in his work, in who they made him. Distant. Cold, perfectionist. Inscrutable. No descriptors, anymore, no age or build, just a role, a name, a shell where he used to be. His features taken away and replaced by archetypes, even his face hollowing out.

This is how he became Sifu. This is how she lost her husband. How you lost your dad.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 176

Explanation and Analysis:

Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Character Timeline in Interior Chinatown

The timeline below shows where the character Dorothy/Old Asian Woman appears in Interior Chinatown. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...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... (full context)

...“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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...Willis’s parents live on the second floor. Willis knows it would make his mom ( Old Asian Woman ) happy if he stopped by, not that she’d show it. She’d probably just grouse... (full context)

Willis runs into his mom ( Old Asian Woman ) on the eighth floor. She immediately scolds him for not stopping by. Willis turns... (full context)

FLASHBACK: YOUR MOTHER. In Willis’s earliest memories of his mom ( Old Asian Woman ), he’s five years old, and she’s “Young Beautiful Oriental Woman.” She wears floral blouses... (full context)

FLASHBACK. Willis’s mother (Old Asian Woman) is reading a textbook called How to Make $1,000,000 in Real Estate.... (full context)

...her teapot is sitting on. The teapot flies through the air, and scalding-hot water splashes his mother ’s arm; scars will form on it, and Willis will look at them years later... (full context)

...you play the same role for too long and can’t remember who you really are. Willis’s mom used to die all the time, and these are his happiest childhood memories; his mom’s... (full context)

INT. AMERICAN MOVIES—1950s AND ’60s. Back when she was Young Asian Woman, Willis’s mother used to dream she’d have a better life. Once, an American movie made it to... (full context)

INT. THE MOVIE VERSION OF HER LIFE—NIGHT. Willis’s mother (as Pretty Asian Hostess) is wearing a red cheongsam. Nat King Cole plays on the... (full context)

...they make up names, just for themselves—maybe names they’ve heard in movies. Pretty Asian chooses Dorothy; Asian Man/Waiter chooses Ming-Chen Wu. (full context)

Dorothy and Ming-Chen Wu share a cigarette and pots of tea. They talk about their pasts—both... (full context)

INT. DOROTHY’S BACKSTORY—HOSPital—DAY. It’s 1969, and Dorothy is working as a nurse’s assistant in Alabama for meager wages. She gives sponge baths... (full context)

INT. GREYHOUND BUS—AMERICAN BACKROADS—DAY. Dorothy rides the bus through the countryside, which is every bit as magnificent as she imagined... (full context)

INT. DOROTHY’S FUTURE. Years pass, and Dorothy finds her old book of gods and reads it to young Willis in their one-room... (full context)

Years later, Dorothy receives a phone call from her brother-in-law in Alabama: Angela needs her help. Dorothy travels... (full context)

INT. GOLDEN PALACE CHINESE RESTAURANT. Ming-Chen Wu sits and stares as Dorothy finishes her story. He snaps out of the state he’s in and begins his own... (full context)

INT. GOLDEN PALACE CHINESE RESTAURANT. Ming-Chen Wu finishes his story, and Dorothy comforts him. He explains that he came here because he was the oldest son and... (full context)

EXT. DOROTHY’S BACKSTORY. Dorothy moves to Chinatown from Ohio. She brings her meager belongings and “a memory of her... (full context)

Ming-Chen Wu works in back while Dorothy works up front. Men grope her and “imagine a world where they could keep her”... (full context)

On their days off, Dorothy and Ming-Chen Wu wander around Chinatown but don’t venture beyond its confines. Dorothy dresses in... (full context)

Ming-Chen Wu and Dorothy debate the origins of their romance. Dorothy argues that Chinatown isn’t a place for love—it’s... (full context)

...fragmented backgrounds—all the bit parts they’ve had to accept—seem to make sense. Ming-Chen Wu and Dorothy feel “less alone in the world,” their days are full of happy memories, and their... (full context)

GENERIC ASIAN FAMILY. Willis, Ming-Chen Wu, and Dorothy try their hardest to be a typical American family. They dress the part and get... (full context)

...comes and goes at odd hours. He comes home late and wakes up Willis and Dorothy to rant about his plans to make a better life for his son. And then... (full context)

Willis hears his parents arguing late at night. Ming-Chen Wu says, “They’ve trapped us.” But Dorothy wonders if she and Wu have actually “trapped” themselves. She still thinks they can make... (full context)

Karen wants to meet Old Asian Woman . Willis is nervous and explains to Karen that his mother can be difficult, but... (full context)

...no—now, she’s just her dad. Black and White is packing up, preparing to leave town. Old Asian Woman approaches Willis and recalls how he used to practice his Kung Fu skills nonstop when... (full context)

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Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Character Analysis

Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Quotes in Interior Chinatown

Dorothy/Old Asian Woman Character Timeline in Interior Chinatown

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