Interior Chinatown

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-2

Reading Check

1. What is Willis’s job?

2. What role does Willis say all Asian males aspire to?

3. Who was the best kung fu student that Willis’s father ever had?

4. What is above the Golden Palace restaurant?

5. What did Willis’s mother make him promise not to aspire to?

6. Which of Willis’s neighbors dies in Chapter 2?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 1, what point does Willis make about different degrees of poverty?

2. What are Willis’s parents’ marital and living situations?

3. What are the multiple meanings suggested by the title of the television show that shoots in Willis’s neighborhood?

4. From context, what is it reasonable to assume that the abbreviation “INT.” stands for in the title “ACT II: INT. GOLDEN PALACE”?

5. When Willis describes his father singing the John Denver song “Country Roads,” what is he suggesting about the feelings of the older generation of his community?

6. What is especially upsetting to Willis about watching his father deliver his lines in the Chapter 2 episode of Black and White?

Paired Resource

“Almost Half of All Asian Roles Serve as a Punchline, Study Finds”

• This NBC News article by Sakshi Venkatraman shares the findings of a study investigating the use of Asian characters as the butt of jokes and the sexualization of female Asian characters.
• This resource relates to the themes of A Typecast Life and The Need for Self-Definition.
• What did this study find? How does the article suggest things change when people of Asian descent have the power to represent themselves? How much power does Willis feel he has to represent himself? What forces seem to be working to keep him in a stereotypical role?

“In Bruce Lee's Shadow: Asians Struggle to Create New Hollywood Images”

• This ABC News article by Bryan Robinson explores how the popularity of martial arts stars like Bruce Lee has proven to be a mixed blessing for people of Asian descent.
• This resource relates to the themes of A Typecast Life and The Need for Self-Definition.
• How has the popularity of Asian martial arts films and stars impacted people of Asian descent? How does Yu convey this same sense that “Kung Fu Guy” is both a burden and a blessing to Willis’s community?

Chapters 3-4

Reading Check

1. Whose life does Willis save in the Chapter 3 filming of Black and White?

2. What startling development during the Black and White filming in Chapter 3 does Willis not immediately notice because he is busy daydreaming about getting an expanded role as a martial arts expert in the series?

3. What is the name of the beautiful Asian actress Willis meets during the Chapter 3 filming of Black and White?

4. How long does Willis have to wait to take another role after his character dies?

5. What is Willis’s mother’s first name?

6. Where did Willis’s mother grow up?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What disappoints Willis’s father about Willis’s Chapter 3 performance in Black and White?

2. In Chapter 3, what do Willis and Miles Turner fight about?

3. Besides her beauty, what about the Asian actress’ looks fascinates Willis?

4. What tragic family loss did Mr. Wu endure before he emigrated to America?

5. How does Mr. Wu’s backstory echo the Asian actors’ experiences in Black and White?

6. What impact did playing Sifu have on Mr. Wu’s family life?

Paired Resource

“Intergenerational Trauma in AAPI Communities”

• This Verywell Mind article by Brina Patel discusses some of the challenges Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage face due to the combination of historical trauma, discrimination, and cultural characteristics.
• This resource relates to the theme of Elusive National Identity.
• What is intergenerational trauma? What are some of the sources of intergenerational trauma that AAPI Americans might face? How might this trauma impact a person’s ability to feel “at home” in America? How might it impact family relationships? What impacts does intergenerational trauma seem to have on the Wu family in Interior Chinatown?

“For a Better Life, Move to Taiwan: My Taiwanese American Story”

• Serena Puang, writing for TaiwaneseAmerican.org, explains the difficulty of being American-born but never feeling American enough—and her resulting fantasy of emigrating to Taiwan.
• This resource relates to the theme of Elusive National Identity.
• What kinds of discrimination and prejudice has Puang faced in the United States? What difficulties does she face when she spends time in Taiwan? What similarities and differences do you see in her experience and Willis’s experience? Does Willis seem at all interested in reverse-immigration as a solution to his problems? Does this speak more to his relationship to the United States or to his relationship to his family and community?

Chapters 5-7

Reading Check

1. How old is Phoebe when Chapter 5 begins?

2. What do Turner and Green show up at Karen’s house to investigate Willis for?

3. What does the narrative call the case that Willis stands trial in?

4. Who serves as Willis’s defense attorney?

5. What role is Willis playing again at the end of Chapter 6?

6. What is Willis watching Sifu do at the end of the novel?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Willis compare spending time with Phoebe to his time in the world of Black and White?

2. How does Willis compare Phoebe’s attitude about her ethnicity to his own?

3. What confusing claims does the prosecution make about who the victim is in the case Willis is being tried for?

4. At the conclusion of the trial, what is Willis found guilty of?

5. When Willis is watching his father and Phoebe in Chapter 7, to what does he compare the Golden Palace?

6. What does Willis conclude about his own capacity to learn, and what role does he hope Phoebe will play in his continued evolution?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

• Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, this novel offers a feminist and post-colonialist reinterpretation of the Argentinian classic Martín Fierro as it shares the riotous and poignant journey to self-discovery of the young peasant woman China Iron.
• Shared themes include Elusive National Identity, A Typecast Life, and The Need for Self-Definition.
• Shared topics include love, prejudice and discrimination, racial stereotypes, humor, metafiction, surrealism, and satire.

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

• This multiple-award-winning novel tells the story of a Black author on the road to promote his latest novel in the company of “the Kid”—who may or may not be imaginary, much like the author’s own life story.
• Shared themes include A Typecast Life and The Need for Self-Definition.
• Shared topics include family, prejudice and discrimination, racial stereotypes, humor, metafiction, and surrealism.
• Hell of a Book on SuperSummary