Who Society Allows Us to Be: Reflections on Interior Chinatown

I just finished listening to Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, and I want to preserve my thoughts while they’re still fresh. First of all, this book is written in such a unique and interesting way. I loved the structure and the way it explored the internal experience of being Asian in America. I also loved the cynical humor. The almost dry, matter-of-fact humor that older Asian men seem to naturally have about everything. There was something about that tone that made the book’s observations feel even sharper. I especially appreciated the way the book explored the discrimination Asian people experience in America, while also examining the complicated attitude of simply “letting it roll off your back” because, in the grand hierarchy of American racism, whatever Asian Americans experience is seemingly considered “nothing” compared to the Black American experience. (According to the author.) That doesn’t mean the discrimination isn’t real. Asian people have been targeted in their own ways…