"Early in the the formidable new essay collection Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning, the poet Cathy Park Hong delivers a fatalistic state-of-the-race survey. ‘In the popular imagination,’ she writes, ‘Asian Americans inhabit a vague purgatorial status . . . distrusted by African Americans, ignored by whites, unless we’re being used by whites to keep the black man down.’ Asians, she observes, are perceived to be emotionless functionaries, and yet she is always ‘frantically paddling my feet underwater, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy.’ Not enough has been said, Hong thinks, about the self-hatred that Asian-Americans experience. It becomes ‘a comfort,’ she writes, ‘to peck yourself to death. You don’t like how you look, how you sound. You think your Asian features are undefined, like God started pinching out your features and then abandoned you. You hate that there are so many Asians in the room. Who let in all the Asians? you rant in your head.’” How does Interior Chinatown explore the discomfort Hong identifies here?
A central theme that Interior Chinatown explores is the guilt of Asian American people, and discomfort the characters feel when they attempt to participate in American culture. Willis Wu especially constantly questions himself and his actions in his pursuit of self-discovery. Cathy Park Hong accurately depicts Willis in the context of the tv show, Black and White, when she points out “distrusted by African Americas, ignored by whites, unless we’re being used by whites to keep the black man down.” Turner, a black man, and Willis get into a fight about minority representation within the show. Turner lets Willis know that black people are still underrepresented and Willis feels anger and guilt at himself and other Asian people for allowing the mistreatment to happen.
Hong further identifies the feeling of inadequacy that Asian Americans feel; Willis never feels like he can live up to Older Brother’s achievements, or make his parents and Karen proud. He allows himself to sink into this self-hatred and as Hong points out, it is “‘a comfort,’ ‘to peck yourself to death.’” Instead of allowing himself to be loved by Karen unconditionally, and allow himself to be supported by Karen, he doubles down and focuses again on becoming Kung Fu Guy. Willis is afraid of becoming someone different than who he always thought he would be. Karen points out “There are other are other things worth pursuing, Willis. The world is out there, and it’s big.” (Yu 179) But because Willis is comfortable with the cyclical nature of disliking his life, he can’t see past his current situation.
Finally, Hong’s commentary that “You hate that there are so many Asians in the room,” is revealed in Willis (and the rest of the acting community), when they are constantly put into one of the roles made for Asian people. The list of limited roles is defined by white people, and the Asian role is one that is dispensable and exchangeable. Willis finds himself uncomfortable with being angry at other Asian people for getting roles over him, because he knows that they are in the same situation as him. Willis finally breaks out of the mold he finds himself in throughout his time acting on the show with the help of Older Brother. But the guilt and anger will still linger within the Asian American community until they are able to break free from the mold they are put in by systems in power.
The discussion of guilt and how it influences Willis's character and choices throughout Interior Chinatown is an interesting connection to make, considering how little self-reflection Willis displays prior to the end of the novel. Guilt is a trait that requires awareness and consideration of one’s actions and how their actions affect those around them. Although by the end of the novel Willis understands how his preoccupation with fulfilling the role of Kung-Fu Guy hurts himself and those around him, amid his obsession he demonstrates no such awareness.
ReplyDeleteThe full weight and wrongness of Willis’s actions, and the associated guilt, does not come until after he has achieved Kung-Fu Guy and realizes that the role is not what he expected. This moment of realization and reflection is described when Yu writes, “You understand: you’ve made a mistake. The biggest mistake of your life. Man. You screwed up.” (181). The guilt that comes with the conformity to the White American Dream is not explored in Interior Chinatown until Willis is fully aware of the hollowness of the achievement after receiving the role of Kung-Fu Guy. Willis’s feelings at the end of the novel shows that the guilt of conformity persists even when Asian Americans are able to break free of their roles.