Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 7:30 PM

Street and Davis Performance Hall, Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre

This event will last approximately 60 minutes with no intermission.

*Run times listed here are based on information provided at this time and are subject to change.

$25 general admission
$10 students with ID and youth 18 and under

Tickets

15%-25% subscription discounts available

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"Yu is a superhero of rendering human consciousness and emotion in the language of engineering and science."

— The New York Times Book Review

Co-sponsored by the Department of English Visiting Writers Series

Charles Yu is the author of the critically-acclaimed, genre-bending Interior Chinatown, a National Book Award winner that explores the confining stereotypes of Asian Americans in Hollywood and in American culture. A television screenwriter (HBO’s Westworld) and the author of three other books — including How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine — Yu delivers an entertaining and thought-provoking onstage interview, discussing the Asian American experience, representation and stereotypes in film and television, and the unique power of science fiction to address the human condition. 

Hailed for his sharp wit and incisive social commentary, Yu’s work is as inventive as it is moving. In his entertaining and thought-provoking lectures, Yu speaks to audiences of all kinds about the Asian American experience, representation and stereotypes in film and television, and the unique power of science fiction to address the human condition. 

About Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown, his fourth and most recent novel, is at once a satirical meditation on immigration, assimilation, and Hollywood stereotyping of Asian Americans and a touching portrait of a family. A National Book Award winner and a “Most Anticipated Book” by Entertainment Weekly, TIME, The Rumpus, and others, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, who has been cast in the role of “Generic Asian Man” in the ongoing procedural cop show Black and White, as he struggles to transcend the rigid and reductive roles available to those who look like him. Both extensively researched and startlingly original, Interior Chinatown is a profound and topical exploration of the weight of stereotypes and racism in American culture.

More About Yu

Yu received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on 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. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes in honor of his parents.

This is the first appearance by Charles Yu at the Moss Arts Center.

Photo by Tina Chiou