Interior Chinatown

Chapterts 1-2

Reading Check

1. Actor (Chapter 1)

2. Kung Fu Guy (Chapter 1)

3. Older Brother (Chapter 1)

4. An apartment building/the SRO (Chapter 2)

5. Becoming Kung Fu Guy (Chapter 2)

6. Old Mr. Fong (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. He points out that the gap between having just enough to subsist on and having not quite enough to subsist on has a tremendous impact on people. He suggests that this disparity has even more of an impact than the gap between being well-off and being poor. (Chapter 1)

2. His mother and father have separated, and they live in different apartments in the same building that Willis lives in. (Chapter 1)

3. The show is called Black and White. A “black and white” is a police car because of its traditional colors, but this is also a reference to the show’s stars, two police partners—one Black partner, one white partner. “Black and white” is also a way of describing a situation that lacks nuance, which is a good description of this show’s approach. (Chapter 1)

4. The abbreviation “INT.” most likely stands for “interior” because the narrative is set up like a screenplay. The title “ACT II: INT. GOLDEN PALACE” establishes the setting for Chapter 2, inside the Golden Palace restaurant. (Chapter 2)

5. Willis suggests that his father, like many of the older immigrants, is exhausted by a lifetime of unsuccessfully trying to fit in and achieve his dreams in America. The John Denver song speaks to his father’s yearning to be somewhere he feels at home. (Chapter 2)

6. It hurts Willis to see that his father has given up trying to be seen as anything other than a stereotype of an older Asian man. (Chapter 2)

Chapters 3-4

Reading Check

1. Miles Turner’s (Chapter 3)

2. He has been shot. (Chapter 3)

3. Karen Lee (Chapter 3)

4. 45 days (Chapter 4)

5. Dorothy (Chapter 4)

6. Taipei/Taiwan (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. Although Willis is an educated person and a fluent English speaker, he affects a broken, stereotypical Chinese accent to fulfill the production’s expectations for the role he is playing. (Chapter 3)

2. They fight over whether Asian actors or Black actors have a harder time finding good roles. (Chapter 3)

3. Karen’s looks are ambiguous, as if she could be of a number of different ethnicities. (Chapter 3)

4. In 1947, soldiers killed his father during the period of martial law in Taiwan. (Chapter 4)

5. Mr. Wu could not find work in academia because he did not have a foreign accent. This echoes the Black and White producers’ insistence on the Asian characters speaking broken English. (Chapters 3-4)

6. Mr. Wu lost himself in the stereotype of Kung Fu Guy (Sifu) and became like a different person. This alienated his wife and child. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 5-7

Reading Check

1. Five (Chapter 5)

2. Stealing a car (Chapter 5)

3. “The case of the missing Asian” (Chapter 6)

4. Older Brother (Chapter 6)

5. An anonymous dead Asian man (Chapter 6)

6. Sing karaoke (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. Willis finds spending time with Phoebe much more rewarding. He felt like a bit player in Black and White, but when he is with Phoebe, he feels central to the “plot” of her life—he calls her the star, and he finds being the star’s father even better than being the star himself. (Chapter 5)

2. Willis’s reaction to stereotyping and prejudice has always been a little self-conscious and acquiescent, but his daughter seems confident and secure, not the least bit self-conscious about her ethnicity. (Chapter 5)

3. The original premise of the Black and White episode is that Older Brother is missing and Willis is a suspect—but when Older Brother appears in court and points out that he is not missing, the prosecution shifts gears and claims that Willis himself is the missing Asian individual. (Chapter 6)

4. He is found guilty of “imprisoning” himself. In accepting the narrow confines of a racial stereotype and trying to live within them, he has locked away his own personality and individuality. (Chapter 6)

5. He compares the Golden Palace to a museum exhibit. He sees it as a somewhat artificial and staged representation of a time and place. (Chapter 7)

6. Willis feels that he has already grown in a way that will prevent him from sharing his father’s fate. He hopes to continue to grow and evolve, and he believes Phoebe can help him by serving as a role model of how to move between two worlds. (Chapter 7)