BBC News
By Yvette Tan
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionThe story plays on the trope of the Chinese character always being the Kung Fu Guy
Willis Wu is not a Kung Fu Guy.
Instead, much to his dismay, the struggling Asian American actor is only ever cast in parts like Generic Asian Man Number One or Background Oriental Male.
He is, however, the main protagonist of the satirical novel Interior Chinatown, which last month won one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the US, the National Book Award for fiction.
Its author, Charles Yu, says he wrote the book to create a space where background characters get to have a story .