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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. Who does the judge say will decide if the protagonist is a victim or a suspect?

2. When Green asks to make a statement, how does the judge respond?

3. In her soliloquy in ACT V: KUNG FU DAD," what is one of the things that Phoebe says she will make and sell?

4. How does Phoebe's character move between the three countries represented on her show?

5. Watching Phoebe playing in ACT V: KUNG FU DAD," what does the protagonist suddenly remember?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Yu set the reader up to feel the maximum impact of the revelation of Phoebe's fifth "fear"?

2. Why does the protagonist react badly both to the news about the baby and the later news about Karen's new show?

3. When Dorothy and Ming-Chen Wu first meet, Dorothy asks him "Now that you've found me, what do you have to say for yourself?" (132) What is his response, and what is its significance?

4. What is the double-meaning of "learning time" in "ACT V: KUNG FU DAD"?

5. What is Turner's argument about the protagonist's internalized inferiority?

6. What is the significance, during the protagonist's monologue, of the light hitting him "just right" (245)?

7. What happens to Ming-Chen Wu's friend Allen after he becomes a success in the United States?

8. When the police come for the protagonist, where does Karen say he is going, and what evidence is there that she does not really understand the protagonist's plan?

9. What does the protagonist see as the benefits and drawbacks of the place where his daughter is growing up?

10. What is the rhetorical purpose of the list of anti-Asian laws that begins "ACT VI: THE CASE OF THE MISSING ASIAN"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the function of the quotes that precede the various acts. What ideas do they focus on? Who are their authors, and why does it matter? Why include them at all? Be sure to cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that examines how Interior Chinatown's status as metafiction as well as its use of pastiche, and hyperreality and simulacra relate to the thematic motif of performance versus authenticity. Be sure to support your ideas with evidence from the text and to cite any outside references in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the ambitions of Willis Wu. What are his ambitions, and where do they come from? At what point do his ambitions cease being merely about wanting material security (a safe and comfortable place to live, enough food to eat, etc.) and start to be about something more intangible (ego, status, etc.) Are these ambitions inherent in his personality, or are his ideas about success derived from culture, family, or some other source? Be sure to provide textual support for your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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