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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. After the accident with the hot tea, what visible reminder is there of the protagonist's carelessness?

2. What is "White Lady Cop's" name?

3. What role does Young Fong play in the gambling club?

4. What is so special about Older Brother?

5. What surprises Turner on page 107 when Green says that the protagonist is "working with us. Impossible Crimes Unit"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the protagonist's earliest memories of his father?

2. What are some of the details that people should realize mean that Sifu is living in poverty?

3. What do people in Chinatown say about Older Brother, and why does the narrative say that it does not matter?

4. What is the paradox that periodically sends the residents of the Chinatown SRO Apartments over the edge into an all-night party?

5. When Green takes the protagonist's side in his argument with Turner, what does Turner say about both the protagonist's and Green's reactions?

6. What language does the protagonist speak to his father in the restaurant, and how does it reveal one source of the gap between them?

7. What are the multiple identities of Karen Lee?

8. What causes the protagonist to realize that his father is suffering from dementia, and how does he respond?

9. How does the protagonist feel when he sees his father working in the kitchen, and why?

10. Describe the interior of the Golden Palace.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an analysis of the significance of the history of Chinatown in this novel. How does the inclusion of this history impact the novel's action and the characters' motivations, and what is its role in developing the themes of the novel? Support your claims with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Do some research on the terms "late capitalism" and "commodification" as they relate to postmodernism. When you have a strong understanding of these terms, write a thesis-driven essay that applies them to Yu's Interior Chinatown. Be sure to support your ideas with evidence from the text and to cite any outside references in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you explore the text's mixed emotional responses to Older Brother. What emotions does he elicit from Willis's perspective and from the other residents of Chinatown? Which emotions are directly expressed, and which are implied? How would you explain the conflicting responses he generates? Be sure to support your claims with textual evidence.

(see the answer keys)

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