Interior Chinatown

by

Charles Yu

Allen is Ming-Chen Wu’s housemate during graduate school. Like Wu, Allen is originally from Taiwan. After the Attack on Pearl Harbor, some local people violently beat Allen in retaliation, ignorantly believing that Allen is of Japanese descent (and also ignorantly believing that all people of Japanese people are to blame for the attack). Though Allen goes on to have a family and becomes quite successful, he suffers headaches for the rest of his life because of the attack, and he eventually dies by suicide.
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Allen Character Timeline in Interior Chinatown

The timeline below shows where the character Allen appears in Interior Chinatown. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 4: Striving Immigrant
Immigration Theme Icon
Performance and Identity  Theme Icon
Family and Ambition Theme Icon
...from Japan, Kim and Park are from Korea, Singh is a Punjabi Sikh man, and Allen Chen is from Taiwan. Wu is a teaching assistant, and the university pays him a... (full context)
Immigration Theme Icon
Performance and Identity  Theme Icon
Stereotypes Theme Icon
The System Theme Icon
When Ming-Chen Wu comes home one day, his housemates tell him that Allen is in the hospital—someone beat him up and told him, “This is for Pearl Harbor.”... (full context)
Immigration Theme Icon
Stereotypes Theme Icon
The System Theme Icon
After graduation, Ming-Chen Wu falls out of contact with everyone but Allen. They write letters, and Wu takes pleasure in hearing about Allen’s academic success. He gets... (full context)
Immigration Theme Icon
Stereotypes Theme Icon
The System Theme Icon
A couple years after Allen’s death, his daughter Christine graduates with honors from Stanford. She gives a speech in which... (full context)