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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. What song is it implied that the protagonist's father is singing at the close of the novel?

2. What worry does the protagonist have about staying with Karen and Phoebe?

3. Why does Chiang Kai-shek enter Taiwan?

4. Why is the protagonist suspicious of Karen's interest in him?

5. What role does Older Brother play in the trial?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the literal and nonliteral meanings of the world inside Phoebe's closet.

2. On page 188, the script notes that Karen and Phoebe's show is "a cartoon. Sort of." In what sense is this both literally and figuratively true?

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

4. What causes the protagonist to finally go in search of his family?

5. What is the confusion over who the "missing Asian" is, and what bizarre revelation comes as the confusion is cleared up?

6. What does the protagonist come to understand about his father in the book's final "Act"?

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

8. What observations about family life does Yu make in the section "GENERIC ASIAN KID"?

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

10. What is the structural purpose of telling the story of Ming-Chen Wu and Dorothy right before the protagonist starts his relationship with Karen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Interior Chinatown makes a claim that Asian-American immigrants are in a perpetual kind of limbo, always outsiders in America. Write an essay in which you evaluate the novel's claim that Asian-Americans can never really "arrive" in America against objective studies of the extent to which Asian-Americans have been assimilated into mainstream American culture. Remember that anecdotal, personal, and subjective measures are not being called for, here--your evidence should be drawn from a variety of data-rich and well-designed studies. Be sure to use evidence from both Yu's text and from outside sources, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you weigh the relative impacts that self-stereotyping and stereotyping by others have on the protagonist of Interior Chinatown. Does he have beliefs about himself or other Asian Americans that are derived from stereotypes rather than from individual personality and abilities? Think about the conflicts he faces, the choices he makes, and his beliefs about himself as you create and defend an argument about how much weight each form of stereotyping has on him. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you describe how the novel explores the idea of the "authentic" versus the "performative" self and then offer an analysis of the extent to which this idea applies only to minorities versus applying more generally to the human condition. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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