One Book, One Philadelphia picks ‘Interior Chinatown,’ explores the conflicts of the American experience

When writing Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu discovered a painful truth: His own face didn’t come to mind when he pictured an American.

“It’s a crazy thing to think,” said Yu, who is Taiwanese American and lives in southern California. “But when I see an Asian face, even I’m thinking, ‘When did they come here? Where did they come from?’ And I was born here. That’s the power of unconscious bias.”

Yu’s novel, this year’s One Book, One Philadelphia pick, interrogates how the news media, movies, and television impact how Asian Americans see themselves. Now in its 21st year, One Book is a city and library-sponsored literary program that encourages Philadelphians to read and discuss the same book. In-person and virtual discussions will start in mid-April.

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The 259-page novel is the tongue-in-cheek story of Willis Wu, an actor in a cop show filmed at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Wu, cast as “generic Asian man” and forced to speak in an exaggerated Asian accent, longs to be “Kung Fu Guy,” the best role an Asian actor can hope for. Other Asians on set are given typecast roles: “inscrutable grocery owner” and “Asiatic seductress.”

The fictional show, Black and White, stars a Black man and a white woman as the series’ leads. (In Willis’ world Black men and white women are the desired Hollywood couple.) There are beautiful Black women in Black and White, too. But they aren’t regulars. There isn’t a white man in the cast, yet it’s clear the characters’ lives unfold through his perspective.

Interior Chinatown describes where the book is set, but it’s also a metaphor for what is going on inside of Willis’ head. There are scenes in Interior Chinatown where it isn’t clear if Willis is acting or expressing his feelings about being treated like a model minority and constant foreigner. These dream sequences — like the one where Willis and the Black cop discuss how their lives are treated as entertainment by white America — address the centuries-old dilemma of people of color who don’t feel like Americans when our humanity is overlooked. Like Willis, I’ve had many internal conversations with white people, telling them what its like to live as a Black woman in America.

“It touches on the heavy stuff like intergenerational trauma, the immigrant experience, and how the American dream can be contradicting,” said Terence Washington, manager of civic engagement and programs for Free Library of Philadelphia. “But it is also really funny.”

I chatted with Yu, who is also the showrunner for the Hulu adaptation of Interior Chinatown, about being a One Book, One Philadelphia author.

Answers have been edited for clarity.

I was surprised. I was feeling a little down and this was the best news. I never imagined that a city as big as Philadelphia would read my book at one time.

Chinatowns have historically been a places of refuge, safety, and comfort for new immigrants who faced hostility, discrimination, and violence. There is a commonality of food and language. Chinatowns are anchors. [Still] it’s a part of the American dream to work hard and eventually move, and as residents move, they make room for newer immigrants to come. It’s important to recognize the historical and cultural importance of these neighborhoods and respect the invisible bonds and unseen connections. Those invisible bonds are at the heart of American communities.

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It’s partly real and partly in his head. He’s living in this blurry line between what we perceive about ourselves and what others perceive about us. It’s the collision of these worlds that’s interesting, that Willis struggles with. Is he who he is? Or is he who people perceive him to be?

I didn’t want Willis to be so narcissistic, he couldn’t see other people’s experience. Asian men and Black women are two groups of people who have been historically overlooked and there is a solidarity in that. I wanted to investigate my — our — impulse to other. For example, growing up, I may have had an idea that a Black woman was cute, but I thought she would never look at me. Here, I am disqualifying a whole group of people, specifically Black women, because my perception of myself and what I think their perception of me might be. I wanted to have this conversation, even if it was just in a fantasy space.

That was definitely omission by design. He’s pulling the strings. The director who yells cut is the white man. You don’t see them. It’s implied that he’s the one in control. His perspective is the omniscient, invisible one. The default. All of the characters have to live in that world.

Yes. To me the question is: How does this translate longer term? Will younger storytellers get a chance to break through? What does that mean for the overall perception? It’s going to take more than couple of hit movies to undo hundreds of years of racism.

A novel is the best way to hear the voice inside of a character’s head. When you hear how things impact people, from their perspective, you can see and hear that humanity. They should become more than minorities, or model minorities. Willis wanted people to see his humanity. We all do.