'Interior Chinatown' author Charles Yu wins National Book Award; popes at Asian male stereotype

Charles Yu dressed up for the virtual awards announcement.

Just about every Asian American male has had to contend with the stereotype imposed on Asian American men and boys by American society.

Charles Yu has taken the hurt and anguish caused by the Asian Male Stereotype (AMS), and laughed at it, thereby taking away its power of shame and self-hatred. Along the way, the author won the National Book Award for fiction for his novel "Interior Chinatown."

His satiric novel, written in the form of a screenplay, (hence, the title) tackles the ASM in all its forms -- the nerd, the techie, the second banana, the asexual object of derision. and put them together in his award-winning book.

In this year's coronavirus-affected virtual ceremony, Yu was clearly taken by surprise and admitted he was so sure he wasn't going to win that he didn't prepare any remarks when his name was announced.

“I can’t feel anything in my body right now,” Yu said during his acceptance speech. “I’m going to go melt into a puddle right now.” 

“By turns hilarious and flat-out heartbreaking, Charles Yu’s ‘Interior Chinatown’ is a bright, bold, gut punch of a novel,” the judges said.

The novel's protagonist, Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a leading man, even in his own life: He’s merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least that’s what he has been told, time and time again. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more.

Although, trained as a lawyer, the Taiwan-born Yu doesn't see himself as a writer even though this is not the first time his writing has brought him attention.

Yu is the author of three books, including the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications.

The National Book Award, which dates back to 1950, is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world and has been given to literary icons like W.H. Auden, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, reports the New York Times.

Last month, Hulu announced the streaming network will turn Interior Chinatown into a series.

Yu himself will produce the series too, with executive producers Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore and Elsie Choi for Rideback, and Miura Kite for Participant.

Besides Wu, the National Book Award judges awarded the prize for translated literature went to Yu Miri’s novel “Tokyo Ueno Station,” which was translated from Japanese by Morgan Giles, and is narrated by a ghost who visits a park where he lived when he was homeless.