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A review by frankkasell
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book by Maxine Hong Kingston
4.0
The question: is Wittman Ah Sing a) Chinese, b) American, c) a beatnik, or d) all of the above. The answer is, of course, d) all of the above, but that leads very naturally into the next question: which comes first? Is he an American of Chinese heritage? Is he a Chinese beatnik? Is he a Chinese man who happens to live in San Francisco? I suspect these are the sorts of questions about primary identity that many immigrants and children of immigrants ask themselves. Wittman was born in the U.S. and was named after Walt Whitman, but he grew up (and is still connected to) the Chinese community in Northern California. Parts of this community function essentially as an exclave of China...they follow their own laws, customs, culture, etc. rather than integrate into the culture of the United States. It is important for Wittman to allow both parts of himself to flourish naturally. Wittman is preoccupied with the question of identity. How does one retain his or her cultural heritage (i.e. not allow it to be melted into the great melting pot of the United States) but also integrate into American society? How does one avoid becoming a novelty or exotic attraction without totally assimilating? Wittman is disgusted by Chinese people who have seemingly abandoned their heritage (e.g. some female characters in the book had eyelid surgery to create Western-looking eyelid folds), but he is equally offended by Westerners who try to pigeonhole him into stereotypical "oriental" roles.
It seems perfect to me that Maxine Hong Kingston chose to set this book in the time that she did (the 1960s). Being a part of the beatnik movement allowed Wittman to comfortably straddle both worlds--the free-flowing jazz poetry of the beats has similar roots to the type of Chinese epic story Wittman longs to tell. Additionally, the sometimes-mentioned-but-rarely-focused-on war that we all know was going on at that time provided an interesting backdrop to the similarly Asian vs. American war that was going on within Wittman's soul.
Fittingly, this exploration of identity had equally insightful things to say about 1960s San Francisco culture and Chinese culture. Both facets of the book were written with verve and vigor, and deserve a wider audience than they apparently have. Therefore, I hereby heartily recommend this book to you (assuming you are interested at all in the topics this book covers).
It seems perfect to me that Maxine Hong Kingston chose to set this book in the time that she did (the 1960s). Being a part of the beatnik movement allowed Wittman to comfortably straddle both worlds--the free-flowing jazz poetry of the beats has similar roots to the type of Chinese epic story Wittman longs to tell. Additionally, the sometimes-mentioned-but-rarely-focused-on war that we all know was going on at that time provided an interesting backdrop to the similarly Asian vs. American war that was going on within Wittman's soul.
Fittingly, this exploration of identity had equally insightful things to say about 1960s San Francisco culture and Chinese culture. Both facets of the book were written with verve and vigor, and deserve a wider audience than they apparently have. Therefore, I hereby heartily recommend this book to you (assuming you are interested at all in the topics this book covers).