Interior Chinatown: Chinatown as a Performative Space

<p>This thesis focuses on Charles Yu’s <em>Interior Chinatown: A Novel</em> (2020), exploring the function of Chinatown in Los Angeles within the novel as a space of creation, that of “Asia” for Hollywood and home for Taiwanese immigrants. I argue that <em>Interior Chinatown</em> offers a unique look at the perception or notion of Chinatown, paying attention to the way Hollywood has shaped it and used it to create a sense of China and “Asia” in the cultural imagination. Through satire and the blurring of the reel and the real, Yu is able to criticize the inner workings of Hollywood’s relationship with the neighborhood and its residents. The novel directs the readers’ gaze to the realities of Chinatown: how Hollywood exploits it for profit while perpetuating the community’s poverty, how the exoticization of Chinatown and its residents impacts the community, and how tourism money leads Chinatown to lean into the cultural dynamic. At the same time, the experimental novel’s focus on Taiwanese identity shows readers the multiplicity of Chinatown as a space of culture creation and preservation. Reading <em>Interior Chinatown</em> through the lens of Taiwan’s semiperipheral status–- as a nation on the brink of urbanization and as a nation whose statehood is uncertain–- ultimately deepens the readers’ understanding of the importance of home building in the United States as well as the thread of nostalgia through which the novel finds cohesion.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Fong, Audrey

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rei Magosaki
• Joanna Levin
• Ian Barnard

• Charles Yu
• Asian American Literature
• Chinatown
• Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/english_theses/74

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:english_theses-1078