Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being King Fu Guy. You’re not Kung Fu Guy. But maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be the day
Willis lives in a single room occupancy building in Interior Chinatown above the Golden Palace Restaurant, the set of Black and White, the procedural cop show featuring Miles Turner, handsome, buff and black, and Sarah Green, pretty, sexy and smart, whose smouldering relationship never seems to be consummated. Willis plays a Generic Asian Man of one sort or another, as do all his friends, sentenced to forty-five days with no work after every screen death. He’s the son of Sifu, the legendary Kung Fu Guy, now in decline. Willis wants nothing more than to emulate his father’s success. It was a role once in the sights of Older Brother who disappeared from Interior Chinatown some time ago, no one seems to know quite where. When Willis meets Karen on set, they fall in love, marry and have a daughter but Willis refuses to let go of his dream, even when Karen leaves him, until one day he breaks out, stealing the series’ police car and landing himself in court where, much to his amazement, he finds himself defended by Older Brother. By the end of his trial, it seems Willis has found a way out of Interior Chinatown after all.
Two hundred years of being perpetual foreigners
Yu’s novel is a very funny satire which addresses racism against Chinese Americans through an inventive, original premise, taking the form of a TV script. Willis is an engaging narrator led to his eventual understanding that his poverty of ambition is the result of internalising the feeling of forever being a guest in his own country by Older Brother who’s resisted playing the roles assigned to him by a racist society. Yu’s list of screen stereotypes is wincingly familiar along with his description of the Golden Palace and Willis delivers some smartly funny lines. C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills is Gold explored the history of American racism and oppression of Chinese Americans vividly through a reimagining of the Western but Yu takes a very different tack, addressing it just as effectively in an clever, entertaining way. Like all good satirists, he knows how to make his readers laugh while making a deadly serious point. Interior Chinatown won America’s National Book Award in 2020. I wonder how it went down with Chinese Americans.
Europa Editions: London 9781787703445 288 pages Paperback
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.Loved this novel too.
I can see this would suit you, Anne. I found your comment in my spam folder. No idea why as I’m more than happy to hear from you but as I’ve approved it with luck that will stop should you want to comment again.
This doesn’t sound like anything else! Such an original way of making some serious points. Satire is so hard to do well but when it works it’s great to read.
You’re absolutely right about that. This is such a clever idea and so original.
This one had passed me by but sounds interesting. Great review.
Thanks, Janet. It’s such an unusual idea and makes the point so well while being thoroughly entertaining.
I’d made a mental note of this one already. Very keen to read it. (Really I ought to read How to… as it’s been on my shelves since publication, of course).
I’m even more keen to read that now! Such an inventive writer. Hope you enjoy this one if you get to it, Annabel.
I’ve been trying to decide which book should be my 100th of the year – finished my 99th this morning – so will search out How to Survive in an SF universe!
Oh, excellent! I hope you review it.
It sounds like successful plotting to have Older Brother end up defending him in court. If it is combating the racism experienced by Asians with a deceptively light touch?, making the message accessible, it’s bound to be a good thing.
It seems to be an issue not much explored in fiction and, yes, it is handled with a light touch but the point is well made. I’d prefer to keep this spoiler-free so I won’t say any more about the plot.
Gosh, what an unusual, imaginative sounding novel. Very intriguing.
It’s such an original idea and so cleverly managed.
I read this recently and really enjoyed it too! It was so unique and such a fun but thoughtful way to explore what it means to be Asian in America today.
Humour can be such a great way of exploring such issues when it comes off, can’t it, and Yu does it with such aplomb.
This does sound an interesting take on the issue and I’m keen to read it at some stage (given the dearth of books about the UK Chinese experience).
Satire can easily backfore but this was done so well, and it does seem to be an aspect of racism not much explored in fiction.
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I just loved this one. So entertaining AND so insightful. And I bet you got as much amusement as I did over the scripts, given your love of watching crime serials too.
So clever, isn’t it? Such a sharp way off getting the point across. There were some brilliant, very funny moments in which crime serial clichés featured. Glad you enjoyed it, too