Yu’s Interior Chinatown immediately grabs the reader’s attention due to its unique format. Instead of being written in paragraph form like a typical book, it has large sections written in a screenplay format. I believe this serves several purposes in the novel, the main one being to reinforce the idea of cultural “roles” Asian-Americans are often forced into.
The main character, Willis, works as an actor. It makes sense that the scenes where he is in character would be written as a screenplay, since he is reciting lines written for him and pretending to be someone else. However, it is interesting that a lot of the scenes where he is only being himself are written in this format as well. It points to the way Willis sees himself: he sees himself in the typical “role” of an Asian man off the screen, just the same way as he is portrayed on-screen.
An example of this is when Karen shows romantic interest for him, and the scene cuts to his thoughts of “love story for a generic Asian man?” (Yu 166) before turning into a screenplay of his interaction with Karen. After being cast in the role of generic Asian man so many times at work, he has started to identify himself that way in his personal life as well.
Throughout the novel, he struggles to see a future for himself beyond what is expected for him as an Asian-American. His singular focus is on landing his dream role as Kung-Fu Guy, which he sees as the top role he can achieve as an Asian man. Despite his family warning him of the downsides of this role, and encouraging him to aspire for something more, he struggles to see any possibility beyond what he is taught to see as his goal. This reinforces the novel’s message that Asian-Americans are expected to conform to American society’s ideas about them, and to fill one role, despite the diversity of their backgrounds and personalities. See also his experience studying in the US: despite their differences, all of the Asian students are treated as if they are from the exact same background – this says a lot about the US’s tendency to group people in terms of race rather than understanding their cultural background.
I completely agree with your interpretation of the function of the screen play format of this novel. I found that throughout the novel it became very difficult for myself, as the reader, to differentiate the times when Willis was working and when he was just living his normal life. I think this format does a great job blending the lines between work and life, emphasizing that Wu's role as "generic Asian Man" is not limited to just the roles he plays on screen, but one he is subject to throughout ordinary life, whether that is internalized or projected onto him. That I believe is part of the appeal of Kung Fu Guy. Not only would he hold a more well-respected role on camera, but so too would he gain this respect within his community, bolstering his confidence. However, even with a role like this one, Wu would not be able to completely escape the consequences of his race. For example, with age, as we saw with Wu's father, even this title of Kung Fu Guy is fleeting, and eventually, he will drop once more to the role of Old/Wise Asian Man. This is where the screen play format helps reinforce the idea that Asian men and women continue to be subject to a role prescribed by the values of society at large, which, as you say, forces them to "conform to American society's ideas about them, and to fill one role, despite the diversity of their backgrounds and personalities." This is a very important message for it stresses the power that stereotypes have and that their continued use perpetuates misinformation regarding an entire group of individuals, who are then reduced to a generic mass.
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