 Wu is also the author of "The Yellow Peril" (1982), a revised version of his doctoral dissertation in American Culture from the University of Michigan on American fiction's evolving depiction of Chinese and Chinese-Americans.Wu has stated that he dislikes the terms "Sino-American" and "Oriental", preferring terms such as Asian, Asian-American, Chinese, and Chinese-American.As a fiction writer, he has always given his stories Asian characters, usually as protagonists and sometimes as supporting characters.