Interior Chinatown

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which is the clearest turning point in Willis’s search for his own identity?

A) When he finally achieves his goal of becoming Kung Fu Guy

B) When Black and White moves to a new filming location

C) When he finally spends time getting to know Phoebe

D) When Karen leaves him and takes their daughter away

2. What distinguishes both Older Brother and Karen from Willis?

A) Their lack of success in acting makes the field unrealistic and less tempting for them.

B) They have the advantage of better adult role models for their personal and professional lives.

C) They are more psychologically adaptable and better able to pursue self-definition.

D) They have more options in roles and in life because they are more Caucasian-looking.

3. Which of the locations in the novel most clearly symbolizes the artificial, stereotyped nature of American perceptions of people of Asian descent?

A) The SRO

B) The Golden Palace

C) The courtroom

D) Karen’s house

4. What is Karen’s attitude about Willis’s problems?

A) He creates a lot of them himself by failing to see that he has other options.

B) He blows them out of proportion because of his dramatic personality.

C) He is unable to handle them because his parents have undermined his confidence.

D) He makes them worse by ignoring things until they are out of control.

5. What does the production of the show Black and White demonstrate about American life?

A) Genuine equality and respect between different cultural groups is possible when there is a mutual goal.

B) A group’s place in the cultural hierarchy depends upon how long the group has been in America.

C) There is a clear path toward upward mobility for those willing to work hard.

D) Asian Americans are not the only Americans who are locked into rigid stereotypes.

6. Which character most directly and frequently tries to challenge Willis’s beliefs about race in America?

A) Miles

B) Phoebe

C) Ming-Chen

D) Dorothy

7. Which is the best description of Willis’s relationship with his parents?

A) He admires them and wants to make them proud.

B) He feels smothered by their unrealistic expectations.

C) He feels guilty that he doesn’t genuinely love them.

D) He loves them but feels alienated from them.

8. What does the format of the show Black and White suggest about Americans’ engagement with the problem of race relations?

A) People want it to be portrayed as a series of dramatic adventures.

B) People want it to be easy to understand and mediated by authority figures.

C) People want to believe that there is not really any problem.

D) People want the complex and shifting problem to be portrayed realistically.

9. Which is the most accurate description of the residents of Chinatown in the novel?

A) They are angry and desperate to escape Chinatown’s enforced stereotypes.

B) They find Chinatown’s misrepresentation of culture amusing and entertaining.

C) They participate in Chinatown’s stereotyped presentation of culture in order to avoid conflict.

D) They have deliberately constructed the Chinatown facade to avoid engaging honestly with outsiders.

10. Which technique is evident in both Ming-Chen’s difficulty getting a job in academia and Willis’s need to use broken English on the set of Black and White?

A) Irony

B) Parody

C) Juxtaposition

D) Foil

11. What primarily drives Willis’s behavior for most of the novel?

A) His desire to be understood for who he really is

B) His desire to be accepted and recognized as a star

C) His desire to find love and companionship

D) His desire to create opportunities for Taiwanese Americans

12. Which is a thematic aspect of the novel suggested by its screenplay format and the inclusion of the television show Black and White?

A) American culture is very concerned with keeping up public appearances.

B) In American culture, interacting with other people is an inherently “theatrical” and one-dimensional experience.

C) American culture makes it difficult for people to share their authentic selves with one another.

D) American culture is a “story” that Asian Americans are often excluded from.

13. From Willis’s perspective, how do the majority of Americans see Asian Americans?

A) As geniuses

B) As citizens

C) As foreigners

D) As servants

14. Which most clearly conveys the novel’s thematic concern with the importance of self-definition?

A) Willis’s love for Karen and Phoebe

B) Willis’s courtroom speeches

C) The final karaoke scene at the end of the novel

D) The rules about “dead” characters on Black and White

15. What does the end of the novel suggest has been the most important change in Willis since the beginning of his story?

A) He is less defined by others’ expectations.

B) He is starting to see himself as worthy of love.

C) He is starting to accept responsibility for his actions.

D) He is more willing to sacrifice himself for others.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What paradox of immigrant life does the novel express through Sifu’s karaoke performances?

2. In what sense is Interior Chinatown meant to be a figurative, rather than literal, representation of real life?