The significance of father figures in the development of Yu's message
In "Interior Chinatown," Yu highlights the complexities of fatherhood while also diving into the challenges that Asian Americans face in an America full of stereotypes. The contrast between Willis Wu’s relationship with his father and later, his own relationship with his daughter, Phoebe, is significant in Yu’s overarching message of identity and hope.
Willis Wu’s father is a prime example of what Yu describes throughout the book as a generic Asian man, trapped in stereotypes and stuck in his role as the “Old Asian Man.” As Yu states, “He’d played his role for so long that he’d lost himself in it” (Yu 17). This demonstrates how societal expectations that place all Asian Americans in one box, reducing them to invisible and foreign figures, trap men like Willis Wu’s father in roles that don’t reflect their true selves, leaving them alienated from their own aspirations and their families.
Willis Wu also starts out trapped in Chinatown, aspiring to be “Kung Fu Guy,” which he sees as the pinnacle for Asian men in Black and White, a symbol of America where Asian men are constantly isolated and all viewed as merely a few different manifestations of the stereotypical Asian man. When he finally gets the role, he realizes it’s not the dream he thought it would be. He’s still “in a show that doesn’t have a role for [him]” (Yu 180). This realization marks a turning point for Willis, ultimately leading him out of Chinatown to join Karen Lee and Phoebe. Unlike his father, who remains stuck in Chinatown, which Yu describes as a “holding cell” and “waiting room”, Willis finally begins to break free (Yu 265).
Willis’s transformation is especially evident in his relationship with Phoebe, who represents the ideal assimilated American girl and a new generation that doesn’t carry the same burdens. Phoebe “lives here, without history, unaware of all that came before,” symbolizing the potential for a future generation to push past stereotypes and constraints, forge its own identity, and live between worlds as she does (Yu 208).
While this part of the novel seems hopeful, it also raises questions about whether this loss of history and culture is truly a positive outcome. Perhaps Yu's message is that there is no perfect answer or ending, as both characters – Willis Wu’s father, forever trapped in Chinatown, and Phoebe, the assimilated American girl – symbolize gains and losses.
Nevertheless, by the end of the novel, Willis Wu admits: “I made it out, to become Kung Fu Dad. But that was just another role” (Yu 252). This moment ultimately sets him apart from his father, who never found a way to escape his roles, stuck forever as Old Asian Man, at least until the final couple of pages.
The novel closes with a powerful moment: Willis Wu’s father is finally referred to by his name, Ming-Chen Wu, a final symbol of hope for Asian men to have the ability to form their own identities and build bridges and connections between generations.
I thought you perfectly encapsulated the father/child relationship in the novel through this post. I think many men, no matter what race, often lose themselves in striving to be a protector/breadwinner/successful father, creating strained and distant relationships with their children in pursuit of those goals. Additionally, Willis Wu and his father both wanted to achieve the pinnacle of success for a Generic Asian Man, putting another layer of pressure on them. Even though both Willis and his father achieved their goal of becoming Kung Fu Man, they realized in the end that it wasn't all it was cut out to be. Wu states, "Until your father realizes that, despite it all, the bigger check, the honorable title, the status in the show, who he is...Yellow Man"(Yu 159). All the sacrifices they made and the distant relationships with family members that were created with Wu becoming "Distant. Cold, perfectionist. Inscrutable"(Yu 160) were for nothing.
ReplyDeleteI thought your point about the gains and losses of assimilation in the future generations was really interesting, and I had never deeply thought about that. Although Phoebe is living a life outside of Chinatown and has, in a way, "escaped" the societal stereotypes and roles that Asian Americans are pushed into, what is she losing with that as well? What part of her parents' and grandparents' stories with immigration to America and new lives (and the hardships associated with it) are simply erased and lost?