Interior Chinatown

November 15, 2019
The inspired author of How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010) delivers another inventive drama about an Asian actor who dreams of becoming a star. Like his contemporary Jesse Ball, Yu is a novelist who plays endlessly with style, genre, and nonlinear narratives. Here, the story is delivered in seven distinct "acts" depicting the arc of Willis Wu, a young actor of Taiwanese descent who dreams of graduating from the pigeonhole of "Generic Asian Man" on television to "Kung Fu Guy," a shining star on the silver screen equal to the legendary Bruce Lee. Yu splits his storytelling between Willis' internal monologue, during which he talks to himself about what he's experiencing and how he feels, and the script for the TV show he appears on in a small role, Black and White, a police procedural featuring Sarah Green, an accomplished young detective, and Miles Turner, her African American partner. In spare but moving prose, Willis describes life among Asian Americans living as so-called foreigners, examines the history of bigotry against immigrants in the West for centuries, tells the sweet but sensible story of how his parents met, and relates how his part on the show evolves over time. It can be funny, as Willis explains the vagaries of the actor's life: "When you die, it sucks. The first thing that happens is that you can't work for forty-five days." The book could have ended more straightforwardly but the author couldn't resist an elegant twist, merging Willis' increasingly complicated emotional life with the plot of the show. As it all comes to a close, the author delivers a bittersweet yet affectionate ending for his endearing, unlikely doppelgänger. An acid indictment of Asian stereotypes and a parable for outcasts feeling invisible in this fast-moving world.

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Starred review from November 1, 2019
The cover designates that this is a novel in both Chinese and English, but Yu's (Sorry Please Thank You, 2012) fiction defies easy labels. This hybrid conflates history, sociology, and ethnography with the timeless evils of racism, sexism, and elitism in a multigenerational epic that's both rollicking entertainment and scathing commentary. Willis Wu is an (Asian) actor, which means he's easily disposable, utterly indistinguishable. Never mind that he's American-by-birth, he's still expected to be fluent in accented English and do the face of Great Shame on command. He's currently on set at Black and White (which stars a black dude cop and white lady cop ), relegated to playing variations of the generic Asian man. Meanwhile, his parents' careers as mostly old Asian woman and old Asian man remain stuck in a loop of stifling casting. The struggles continue as Willis falls in love, marries, and becomes a father, all the while holding on to that someday dream of finally becoming the Kung Fu guy. Resembling a script, complete with a classic typewriter font, Yu's tale ingeniously draws on real-life Hollywood dead ends for Asian American actors, including, quite possibly, Kelvin Yu, the author's younger brother, . As preposterous as many scenes may seem, their sobering reality will resonate with savvy readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2019

Willis Wu wants to be Kung Fu Guy but is resigned to being Generic Asian Man. At the restaurant where he works, the cop show Black and White is perpetually in production, and Willis's chance at the spotlight gives him a new understanding of the secret history of both Chinatown and his own family. From a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree, who authored the Campbell Memorial Award runner-up How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and writes for Westworld and Here and Now.

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