Point of View

The novel is written from Willis Wu's second person point of view. While Willis is the protagonist of Interior Chinatown, he feels incapable of claiming his identity, experiences, and thus his own story. The second person vantage, therefore, enacts Willis's feelings of detachment from his authentic self. Indeed, Willis feels he is consigned to the role of Generic Asian Man, having grown up "training for this and only this" (13). He has dreamed since he was a boy "of being Kung Fu Guy," a role he believes will grant him a sense of validation and self-worth (13). Desperate to earn this title, a part nearest that of the hero that he is allowed to play, Willis devotes himself to the system throughout the novel. His second person voice embodies his resistance to acting from his own thoughts and feelings, and to adopting those he has been given...