Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book 665“[i]mmigrants. Fresh Off the Boats out in public.
Didn’t know how to walk together. Spitting seeds.
So uncool. You wouldn’t mislike them on sight if
their pants weren’t so highwater, gym socks white
and noticeable . . Uncool. Uncool.” Wittman hates
the way their ignorance of American ways and cus-
toms makes them stand out. Furthermore, they do
nothing individually, which Wittman also mocks,
taking pride in his “American independence.”
Given the F.O.B.s’ conspicuousness, Wittman and
other Asian Americans are frustrated when whites
group them in this category, stripping away their
identities.
That the Asian Americans of Whittman’s gen-
eration, born and raised in the country, are fully
Americanized is evidenced through the older
generations. When he visits his mother, all his
aunts are gathered at the home for mah-jongg
(a traditional Chinese game where participants
build suits from a set of tiles). While they talk in
Chinese among themselves, “[t]hey spoke English
to him and to the dog. American animals.” They
recognize that he is not Chinese but Chinese
American, and as such, that some Chinese customs
and language are lost to him. Consequently, they
firmly identify Wittman as Chinese American,
thereby validating his identity in a way the whites
do not. This Americanization is illustrated further
when Wittman approaches an uncle about using
the Benevolent Association’s building to stage his
play. Communicating in Chinese, the trouble arises
when Wittman wants to tell the man he is writing
a Chinese-American play. He suddenly thinks, “[i]
s there a Chinese word for Chinese American?
They say ‘jook tsing.’ They say ‘ho chi gwai.’ Like
‘mestizo.’ Like ‘pachuco.’ ” Chinese indicates China,
a place where there would be no Chinese Ameri-
cans, hence no need for such a word. The generic
terms signifying the mixing of cultures, though,
do not rob Wittman of his identity. Instead, they
allow him to talk about and define it. He first does
so when he switches to English, a language more
his own. Next, he begins giving the uncle examples
of the stories his play will tell, stories that combine
the two cultures. Accordingly, the missing Chinese
word gives him a way to provide deeper insight into
his identity.
Through his play and its staging, Wittman
demands recognition of his Chinese-American
identity, of all Asian-American identities. Drawing
on and embellishing myths and stories from both
Chinese and Chinese-American culture, he draws
attention to the way culture, and in conjunction
identity, is reinvented and reshaped. In fact, when
friends and family come to rehearse the play, they
bring costumes and props, things collected from
both Asian and American homelands. The story he
tells of his family’s name also is a striking example
of this. Wittman relates to his audience that he is
an American Ah Sing, and “ ‘[p]robably there are no
Ah Sings in China. You may laugh behind my fam-
ily’s back, that we keep the Ah and think it means
something. I know it’s just a sound. A vocative that
goes in front of everyone’s names. . . . Everyone
has an ah, only our family writes ours down.” This
change in the family name, the switch from the ah
as verbal only to both written and verbal, shows the
modification in culture and identity upon arriving
in America. While the ah is an important reminder
of Chinese identity, it also is a shift away from it
toward a new Chinese-American identity.
As Wittman emphasizes throughout the novel,
he is not Chinese but American. His features alone
do not make him Chinese, something many whites
assume. This is something he reinforces to his audi-
ence at the end of his play, saying, “ ‘[t]ake a good
look at these eyes. Check them out in profile too.
And the other profile. Dig the three-quarter view.
So it’s not Mount Rushmore, but it’s an American
face.’ ” Wittman rallies his audience to celebrate and
vocalize their identities, challenging the preconcep-
tions that surround them.
Lisa Wengerrace in Tripmaster Monkey
Race preoccupies many of the Asian-American
characters in Tripmaster Monkey, including Witt-
man Ah Sing. Despite being born and raised in
America, Wittman is constantly asked questions
about how long he has been in America and whether
or not he speaks English. As many Asian Americans
find, whites view Asian Americans as “foreign,”
“exotic,” and “oriental.” They play on and perpetuate
stereotypes of Asian Americans, seen most strikingly