What makes someone Chinese-American? Given that Willis seems to be a second-generation Chinese (his dad comes from Taiwan if I understood things correctly), I would have expected more reference to Chinese culture beyond Kung Fu and Cheongsams. It almost felt as though the stereotypes being played out on the screen were what was lived out off-stage. The stars of Black and White seem to ad-lib their lines and I didn’t know if this police procedural is supposed to be a comedy like Brooklyn-99 or played straight like Bones.īut perhaps more confusingly, the “interior Chinatown” part felt very much like the exterior.
The book is written partially in a script format, to show the exterior version of themselves and the interior one, but honestly, everything felt very same-y. While I understand what this book was trying to do and what its message was (not hard since the last section, a courtroom scene, basically laid everything out clear), I found the execution to be a bit lacking. His dream in life is to become Kung Fu Guy, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of success for Asians in Hollywood. Willis, our main character, acts as a generic Asian man on a TV show called “Black and White”.
Interior Chinatown shows what happens when you try to define your identity through its relationship with other races.
While this was no Hamnet, it did provide a lot of food for thought. My boyfriend got this book for me for my birthday, which means that I got to read something I probably wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.
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