*WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020*
*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
Willis Wu doesn''t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he''s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in Chinatown 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. Or is it?
After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he''s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but also the buried legacy of his own fam
