One Book One Region: ¾«¶«AV hosts āInterior Chinatownā author Charles Yu
When the FBI reported in August that hate crimes in the United States against people of Asian descent were 70% higher in 2020 than in 2019, it indicated to author Charles Yu something more deep-seated than reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.
āIt feels like COVID is the thing that gives a reason, or permission, for people who may already have latent feelings to voice those things,ā Yu said in an interview ahead of his Oct. 5 appearance at ¾«¶«AVās One Book One Region program, held at The Garde Arts Center in New London. āI feel like it isnāt the sole cause, at all, but it does agitate something thatās underneathāwhich is xenophobia.ā
³Ū³Üās Interior Chinatown was the 2021 selection for One Book One Region, in which first-year ¾«¶«AV students do a shared summer reading with faculty, staff, advisers and community members. His fourth book is an allegorical novel highlighting the marginalization of Asians in American culture that is told through Willis Wu, who perceives himself as a āGeneric Asianā man. It was the 2020 winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.
While taking on a heavy subject, Yu uses a light touch in Interior Chinatown. As ¾«¶«AV President Katherine Bergeron put it at the event: āThe author is having a lot of fun, to be sure, but the book is also dead-serious about implicating youāmeaning you, me, all of usāin the ā¦ racism that has kept [Willis] in the background.ā
Yu, who has also written for television, including on the HBO series Westworld, said that āoften when Iām trying really hard to write something serious or weighty, it doesnāt work, itās boring. So, itās usually when I take a little bit off of the gas and have a little more fun that I end up doing something that I find more interesting.
āI have had this communicated to me, both from Asian-American and non-Asian-American readers, that this story is being told about someone who maybe they wouldnāt have thought of as the protagonist of a story, and so that makes them feel less alone,ā Yu said. āThatās really it. To me, thatās what fiction does.ā
Yu answered questions at the event from Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures Ayako Takamori. She told Yu that it was as if he anticipated that Interior Chinatown āwas the book we would need for 2020 and 2021.ā
Yu said he is optimistic that there will be less marginalization in the future.
āAll the undergrads, theyāre of this generation that is so much more aware, so much more tolerant, so much more understanding of other peopleās points of view; they really embrace them and celebrate them,ā he said. āPlease keep doing that.ā
One Book One Region is made possible through ¾«¶«AVecticut Humanities; Eversource; the Libraries of Eastern CT; the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; Walmart of Waterford; and ¾«¶«AVās Office of the President. Bank Square Books arranged for the purchase of Interior Chinatown for the Class of 2025 and their advisers.
