Interior Chinatown: WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020

A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.


Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in Chinatown and enters the Golden Palace restaurant where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?


After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he's ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but also the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.

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