What does Wittman Ah Sing's name suggest about his cultural inheritance, especially as a poet? "Trippers and Askers" is a phrase from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. Explore the relationship between Kingston's protagonist and the protagonist of that nineteenth-century poem.
"Monkey," Wittman's other name, refers to the Chinese spiritual and folkloric figure who brought the Buddhist scriptures to China from India. Monkey, like many trickster figures, is a heroic and creative force for the community, but is also unpredictable, playful, at times selfish, at times innovative. Explore the relationship between Monkey and the protagonist of Kingston's novel.
2. Kingston writes, "If Chinese-American culture is not knickknackatory--then what is it?" In "Trippers and Askers," how is Chinese-American culture defined? Nanci complains of the casting director who asks her to "Act Oriental," while Wittman describes how he always played "guys with a lot of facial hair to cover up my face and my race." As these quotations indicate, one of the central motifs of this chapter is the stereotyping by Americans of Chinese-Americans.
But what identity do Nanci and Wittman offer in its place? Is "Trippers and Askers" about the misconstruing of an identity that already exists, or the invention of new cultural identities to reflect new hybrid cultures? At one point, Wittman describes his affinity for the San Francisco Beat writers of the 1950s, but then Kingston notes, "He, poor monkey, was yet looking for others of his kind." Later, Wittman says, "I want so bad to be the first bad-jazz China Man bluesman of America." What do these quotations indicate about Wittman's relationship to American culture--what he finds there, what he doesn't find there, and what he wants to construct that does not yet exist? What does Wittman's concern about writing "racinated" literature suggest about the extent to which he understands race and cultural consciousness to be fluid and capable of revision?
3. Make a list of the literary and artistic references within "Trippers and Askers." Does this list suggest a hybrid of Chinese, American, and Chinese-American cultural references at work in the chapter? How is the setting--San Francisco--a factor? Are there specific literary references (e.g., the Beats) at work here, both in Wittman's thoughts and in the narrative itself?