Phoebe Wu's Role in Interior Chinatown
Phoebe Wu’s Role in Interior Chinatown
To what extent is assimilation beneficial to counteract stereotypes? Charles Yu explores this idea through the character of Phoebe Wu in his novel, Interior Chinatown. Phoebe is the daughter of the main character, Willis Wu. Phoebe’s mother, Karen, takes her to grow up outside of the novel’s main setting, Chinatown. Because of this, Phoebe is not constantly surrounded by the stereotypical roles set for Asian people in life and in the fictional show, Black and White. Phoebe’s world is still formatted as a television show, but instead of a cop drama, Willis describes that she is in a “cartoon. Sort of” (Yu 188). Willis’ inability to fully categorize Phoebe’s show indicates its breaking of boundaries, especially as the show revolves around Phoebe as the main character. This is wildly different from Willis’s presence on television, as he is seen as a replaceable background character, the “Generic Asian Man” (10), throughout the majority of the novel. Additionally, Willis’s world is limited to the boundaries of the stereotypical buildings in the Chinatown set, complete with “oriental flourishes and touches” (67). In contrast, the setting of Phoebe’s show is an amalgamation of her worlds and cultures:
The country is geographically unique and logically impossible, some amalgam of dynastic China, a Taiwanese village in the olden days, and some (...) perfect mythical U.S. suburb. Location, Location, location, three of them, composited into perfect synthesis (...) blurring the boundaries and natural barriers… an optimistic amnesiac’s retelling of the age-old story of immigration, acculturation, assimilation (188).
This architecture still displays a divide, but unlike the isolated world of Chinatown, these houses “[blur] the boundaries” (188) into an idyllic neighborhood of different cultures. Through this setting, Yu indicates that Phoebe will be breaking through the expected stereotypes set for her as an Asian woman. Additionally, Phoebe has the influence of her mom, Karen, who manages to escape Chinatown. In one exchange, Willis offers to show Phoebe some “kung fu moves” (193), which both Phoebe and Karen shut down, Karen in particular looking “concerned” (193) as she knows the pull of the “Kung Fu Guy” dream from Willis, and wants Phoebe to escape that fate. The novel ends with a final act, “Ext. Chinatown” (263), and Willis’s father observes that “if [he’s] lucky, [Phoebe’ll] teach [him]. If she can move freely between worlds, why can’t [he]?” (266), which demonstrates how younger generations help older generations break free from the trauma they experienced through institutionalized racism. At the end of the novel, Willis also drops the moniker “Kung Fu Dad” to become “just dad” to Phoebe (255), juxtaposing the beginning where Willis states that “[Ming-Chen Wu] would always be [His] Father, but somehow was no longer [his] dad” (17). Yu ends the novel on this note to leave the reader with a sense of hope that younger generations, partly due to increased representation and partly due to assimilation—for better or for worse—will break away from previously set stereotypes to build their unique roles in American society.
I really enjoyed this blog post and your take on Phoebe's importance to Willis as a character. One aspect that really stood out to me in this post was how you connected the individual shows that Phoebe and Willis were a part of to the way younger generations have the ability to heal older generations' trauma. This idea allows for the powerful realization that although certain minorities do not have the ability to prevent the stereotypes others impose on them, they do still have the power to free themselves from the traps these standards create for their identities. In other words, Willis realizes that he does not have to become his stereotype, and his stereotype is not the only thing he can ever be. This is an idea that Yu intends to express throughout the novel, and especially during Willis' monologue in court. Willis states how inane it is that everyone in Chinatown is trapped in their own literal and figurative “roles” as Asian Americans. For example, he claims, “We aren’t Generic Asian Men. I mean, look at us. We look ridiculous. All pretending to be the same thing. We’re not” (Yu 248). Additionally, to connect with the post's last point about the relationship between Willis and his dad, Willis highlights how his fathers successful life ended up with virtually nothing (291), all because his father, a man trapped in a role that was never his own, missed the chance to uncover his true identity free of stereotype. This post was really enlightening!
ReplyDelete