But you wrote this book before all this happened. Question: Violence against Asian Americans is on the rise, probably exacerbated with the coronavirus originating from China. Pattie Enrado, author of A Village in the Fields.įrom NPR's Now Read This Q&A with Charles Yu: Read Yu's novel, and you'll understand so much more about Asian-American experience and history in this country.

There are innumerable damaging stereotypes that have existed for more than a century. When the issue of race comes up, Asian-Americans are invisible. The rise of anti-hate incidents against Asian-Americans is disturbing and it angers me. I read Charles Yu's novel, Interior Chinatown, earlier this year, and it so nails the Chinese-American experience in this country, but more so the Asian-American experience in this country. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration- Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet. Or is it?After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he's ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain.

Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Soon to be a Hulu series: from the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man.

The interior chinatown