Choose one of these topics to write about
Reviewers assessing Interior Chinatown in a flattering light tend to differ in their appraisals, some focusing on the book’s “rollicking” humor, others on its “scathing” social commentary. Check the examples in the book’s frontmatter to gauge this range of assessment. Which reviewers seem most on target? On which end of the scale would you place yourself if you were to write a book review? Is Interior Chinatown a humorous tale with a side-order of social commentary? Or is it a social justice novel with a side-order of humor?
In his acknowledgements section, Charles Yu cites the influential work of sociologist Erving Goffman, who argued that modern identity was shaped less by a Freudian concept of ego than it was by the various “roles” an actor would assume (or be assigned) in dramatic settings. After reading the disjointed screenplay offered in Interior Chinatown, how would you address multicultural American identity in terms of “roles”? What sacrifices or benefits ensue when taking on such roles? What misunderstandings emerge when role-playing and cultural identification collapse into one another?
Construct a lesson plan for teaching Interior Chinatown to upper-division high school literature students. How would you pace discussion of the narrative? How would you highlight the unique characteristics of screenplay design and metafictional effects? What contextual material (writings, visual or musical sources, field trips) would you employ to enrich the effects of Yu’s message? What kind of in-class writing assignments would you create to help students develop a more nuanced understanding of cultural identities? You need not answer each question; I am just proposing a few ideas.
How does the screenplay format in Interior Chinatown alter your understanding of fictional dialogue? Does this format allow Yu a series of possibilities he wouldn’t have had in traditional narrative fiction? How does Yu’s screenplay structure mesh with other representations of police procedurals, courtroom dramas, or multigenerational sagas?
Discuss Yellow as a “third term” in the overarching cultural narrative called Black and White. What happens when America’s Black/White dialectic gets triangulated? Try to register motivations and consequences for all three participants. How does Yu highlight outsider status, or intercultural dependency, among these three groups?
