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Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

by Maxine Hong Kingston, Erroll McDonald (Editor)

3.46 of 5 stars 3.46 · rating details · 612 ratings · 52 reviews

Driven by his dream to write and stage an epic stage production of interwoven Chinese novelsWittman Ah Sing, a Chinese-American hippie in the late '60s.

Paperback, 352 pages

Published June 10th 1990 by Vintage (first published April 15th 1989)

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Apr 05, 2012 Marmaroth rated it 4 of 5 stars

(this is a blurb. for full review, click here: http://wwonderholic.blogspot.com/2012...)

Tripmaster Monkey was at once fascinating and thought-provoking. Although it was a bit long-winded and certainly difficult to get through--with long sections of prose that really seemed to describe nothing at all--I loved the references to popular culture, literature, and most of all, the Chinese-American experience. Kingston's style was hard for me to get used to, but I eased into it after the first couple o...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Michael Boxall rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: highly-recommended

The setting of Maxine Hong Kingston’s first novel seems as remote now as the rural China of her two earlier books. In mid-1960s San Francisco the women’s movement, gay rights and the lengthening shadow of AIDS were unknown. The city had not yet seen a computer, let alone a cell phone, and instead of tweeting and texting people were forced in those benighted times to meet face to face and talk.

Enter silver-tongued Wittman Ah Sing, just out of Berkeley and drawing his pea jacket closer against the...more The setting of Maxine Hong Kingston’s first novel seems as remote now as the rural China of her two earlier books. In mid-1960s San Francisco the women’s movement, gay rights and the lengthening shadow of AIDS were unknown. The city had not yet seen a computer, let alone a cell phone, and instead of tweeting and texting people were forced in those benighted times to meet face to face and talk.

Enter silver-tongued Wittman Ah Sing, just out of Berkeley and drawing his pea jacket closer against the fragrant autumn fog. Tall, skinny Wittman will talk the ears off anybody. He is a man with a vision. He seethes at the dullness engendered by so many people settling for so little. Born to traveling Chinese-American players, he dreams of theater: not genteel, polite, proscenium-arched theater, but the kind of theater that, in Artaud’s words, “is as beneficial as the plague, impelling us to see ourselves as we are, making the masks fall and divulging our world’s lies, aimlessness and even two-facedness.” That such an idea seems even more shocking now than it was in 1987 when Tripmaster Monkey came out is eloquent of how the world has turned--or perhaps failed to turn.

At the start of the book Wittman is working in a store and has just been demoted from management trainee to clerk in the toy department. “Insert hooks in pegboard. Down again. Up one more time with the bike. The hooks do not meet the frame; if part of the bicycle fits on one hook the rest of it does not fit on any of the others. Down. I have not found right livelihood; this is not my calling. Oh, what a waste of my one and only human life and now-time.”

Finding right livelihood is what a lot of Tripmaster Monkey is about. Perhaps that is why Kingston set it when and where she did. San Francisco has always attracted visionaries and seekers of the Grail. This is the city of Wittman’s heroes, the postwar generation whose footsteps echo through the fog--the San Francisco of Ferlinghetti and the City Lights bookshop, of Ginsberg and Snyder and Kerouac, all marching to a different drummer. “If some of us don’t live this way, then the work of the world will be in vain,” says one old beatnik. Following their example, Wittman pursues his dreams despite the indifference of those around him, with only his vision and collection of aphorisms to steer by: “Always do the most flamboyant thing … Do something, even if it’s wrong … Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path; those people are your people.”

In China Men, Kingston’s second book, she described how immigrants to the United States falsified identities to trick the Immigration Demons who stood between them and the Gold Mountain. Heir to a thousand ways of throwing dust in the eyes of bureaucracy, Wittman lists nonexistent potential employers to outwit the Unemployment Department: “If Unemployment were to say, ‘We can’t find that name in the phone book,’ you say, ‘You must have looked under Sao. Sao’s not his last name. Woo is his last name. We put the last name in front, see?’ And if they say they did look under Woo, you say, ‘Oh, it must be under Ng. In my dialect we say Ng instead of Woo. Sometimes he goes by Ng. Try looking under Quinto. They came up out of Bolivia.’”

But Wittman’s destiny--his right livelihood--is to build on another tradition, San Francisco’s tradition of Chinese theater. This is monkey business with a vengeance: taking flags and banners and tumblers and epic battles to talk story and try to right the wrongs done to Chinese Americans for the last hundred years. Wittman wants to be American but Americans want him to be Chinese--or rather, the way they think Chinese out to be. And when he drives through the Sierras, Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man blaring from the radio, he is haunted by the specter of “small towns with separate outskirt Chinese cemeteries full of graves with the dates of young men.”

Eventually, San Francisco being the city of dreams, he produces his play--a swirling, jabbing, iridescent tour de force of plague theater. Its main character and setting might be out of Kerouac, but the narrative of Tripmaster Monkey has a distinctly postmodern tang. Images dissolve, stories take unexpected twists and the narrator’s comments throw the action into sudden vertiginous relief. The tumult and the pace only deepen the the novel’s rich pungency.“As in real life, things were happening all over the place. The audience looked left, right, up and down, in and about the round, everywhere, the flies, the wings, all the while hearing reports from off stage. Too much goings-on, they miss some, okay, like life.”

From Wittman’s appearance in Golden Gate Park, through love affairs, parties, hallucinations and digressions to his final extended monologue, Kingston spins out her tale in a fiery cascade of images and exhortations. “Folk-lore, allegory, religion, history, anti-bureaucratic satire, and pure poetry--such are the singularly diverse elements out of which the book is compounded,” Arthur Waley wrote in his introduction to Wu Ch’eng-en’s Monkey. Tipping her hat to that sixteenth-century classic, Kingston has added a critique of consumerist culture.

I liked Tripmaster Monkey when I first read it, twenty-five years ago. I like it even more now, for its innocence and exuberance. If they seem dated, it’s not the book that time has made stale. It’s us.(less)

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Dec 17, 2011 Ensiform rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: china, fiction

In the '60s, a hippie poet, Wittman Ah Sing, quits his job, hits on girls, goes to parties, argues politics, kinda sorta gets married, and puts on a play based on Chinese novels and folktales. Part homage to Chinese culture, part apoplectic diatribe against Caucasians' exoticizing of Chinese Americans, the novel blends humor and rage, story and stream of consciousness.

At times, I grew bored by Wittman's endless rantings on American racism or his overlong tellings of Chinese tales; much of the no...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Juan rated it 1 of 5 stars

So far to hard. I couldn't finish this boring and confusing book. The setting is very clear but the plot is one big puzzle. The story shifts from talking to a girl to walking in a park to telling the past. The style is similar to having many chapters in one chapter. Each memory or moment can have a meaning that correlates to each of the other events. A composition or a montage of things that share the same purpose. There are a lot of old pop culture references that in todays world make us say "w...more

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May 28, 2011 Vernon Ray rated it 1 of 5 stars

When I picked up this book it looked interesting. I love Monkey stories, especially Monkey stories that work into the modern world. (Yes, the 60s still count as modern.) If you want that book go read American Born Chinese, if you want a book written in stream of consciousness from a boring crazy person read this book.

I just got to where I was asking myself multiple times per page, "what exactly is going on?" I was answered with lists of buildings in San Francisco and judgments on the many peopl...more

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Apr 08, 2009 Reza Peigahi rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: regret-the-choice

Oy. Monkey Magic this was not.

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Jul 18, 2010 Frank Kasell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bought-at-idle-time-books

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...more 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).(less)

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Apr 02, 2008 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars

maybe I should try again - I picked this up with fond childhood memories of The Woman Warrior and I simply can't get into it.

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Nov 03, 2008 Ryan Mishap rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

I just could not get into the writing style of this coming-of-age-in-college-in-the-sixties novel. The main character is not a sympathetic guy, and I never found out if it got better.

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Sep 11, 2008 Sue rated it 2 of 5 stars

I so wanted to like this book. Suen Wu Kong, the Monkey King, is by far my favorite figure in Chinese mythology... but I just got bored by it, found it hard to get through...

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Sep 01, 2007 Landismom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, favorites

I first read this in college, and have subsequently read it at least three times. It's held up.

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Mar 17, 2008 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Read too much like Catcher in the Rye--overly jaded narrator, rather irritating.

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May 23, 2007 Michelle rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: twisted

This book was crap. Mostly gibberish with a smattering of plot. Don't waste your time.

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Oct 03, 2011 Jamil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jules gave me this book. I loved it like a mirror.

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Mar 25, 2013 Allyson Shaw added it · review of another edition

I love this weird book, which is tedious in parts, unlikable sometimes and ambitious. I love that it devolves into this meta-spectacle, a celebration of DIY stagecraft and political happenings. It seems very much to me a celebration of something we have lost, this ability to create reality in real time, IRL with others, in a Temporary Autonomous Zone-- to make your own fun, without having to plug it in. Greasepaint, cardboard landscapes...

Also, the politics here, the meditation on the hybrid ide...more

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May 16, 2007 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

I picked this book up because the title caught me. I'd already read Warrior Woman in my Multicultural lit class, and I think there was a list of other books by the author in the copy the school set us up with (or we were encouraged to buy our own copy so we could notate in it, either way) and I know it was mentioned in class this unusually titled book. I decided to hunt down a copy.

The main character is an artist, and as such his life becomes caught in the middle of reality and day dreams. It's...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Foster Dickson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, but I found it annoying. I felt like it went nowhere for way too long. I had read The Fifth Book of Peace, and found the part in that book about Wittman Ah Sing confusing -- what a great and witty name, Wittman Ah Sing -- so I thought, "Maybe I ought to read Tripmaster Monkey and it will make sense." But I couldn't get through this one. I tried and made it about half way through before I just put it down. Maybe I'll try again some day.

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Feb 11, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is so much to take from this book its probably not possible on just one time through. Alternately vivid and clever, and labyrinthine and dreamy, and consistently hilarious, it can be disorienting. I found myself skating through the nearly-nonsensical parts taking them for ambiance and enjoying the trip, and circling underlining copying some one-liners and paragraphs that were so crisp and wise.

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Jan 31, 2009 Fannio rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: references-bay-area, high-school, asian-american, ultimate-personal-meaning, reread-more-than-5-times

Reread multiple times. A sentimental favorite - Wittman Ah Sing was somewhat of a hero when I was an angry young teen, and he still remains one of the few literary characters with whom I honestly identify. There's a lot of brilliant passion, rage, and pride in Wittman that really spoke to me (still speaks, really). This is still, to me, the best emotional/psychological depiction of what it's like being American in a country that can't get over the "Chinese" prefacing my natural-born Yankee-ness....more

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Mar 05, 2010 Hilary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wrote my English thesis on this book and its connections to the jazz of the 1960's. I love this book with everything I have. I sincerely recommend it to everyone. Wittmann Ah Sing, the protaganist, is on a crazy journey of self-discovery throughout the novel and the world he creates for himself is beautiful and broken.

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Nov 09, 2009 Hanabrighton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Underlines and bookmarks tear through my copy. Every time I read it a learn or see something new...totally wonderful example of asian american lit and more than that...a damn fine magical realism that transcends racial cultural boundaries.

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Dec 17, 2012 Mel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really want to give this a 3.5 - there are quite a few long-winded passages that don't necessarily go anywhere. But the redeeming quality of this book has to do with the Chinese American experience and the racism faced by people who have been in America for generations.

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Oct 01, 2012 Laura K rated it 2 of 5 stars

just one of those books that beats you over the head with its point, no subtlety there. she has a good point about a relevant topic, but it could have been edited down significantly to make it more powerful. i really had to motivate myself to finish it.

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Sep 10, 2012 Bryce Emley rated it 3 of 5 stars

i liked it more for its style than anything, but it just didn't hold my attention very well. i think it's meant to be read more aggressively/strenuously than what i devoted to it.

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Jan 23, 2011 Cadi rated it 3 of 5 stars

A linguistic exploration of 1970's San Francisco that read like an angst-y acid trip. While I didn't connect much with the protagonist, the trip he took me on was mostly worth it!

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Oct 25, 2007 Heather S. Jones marked it as to-read

i have read about a quarter of this book -- plan to finish someday soon. :) it's wonderfully eccentric! some things i noted down from the text were: "It must be that people who read go on more macrocosmic & microcosmic trips -- Bibilical God trips, the Tibetian Book of the Dead, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake trips. Non-readers, what do they get? (They get the munchies)"; "Are you mocking my natural paranoia?"; "Let us be honest about it, then; we have no theatre, anymore than we have God: for this...more

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Aug 02, 2007 Dereck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

This book is about a Chinese-American living in California in the 1960s. I am caucasian, I've never been to Califronia, and I wasn't born until the mid eighties, so how could I possibly relate to this book? Well Maxine Hong Kingston is able to put me in his place very well. While reading it, you kinda feel like a Chinese-American living in California in the 1960s. She just keeps the whole thing so simple, and oddly, Wittman Ah Sing's (the main character) life seemed to parallel mine in many ways...more

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Nov 08, 2008 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hannah Sahud

"Tripmaster's" dream-like (drug-induced?) theatrics are a bit over the top but it is an enjoyable adventure in storytelling. Kingston explores the Chinese-American experience through the eyes of a recent liberal arts graduate immersing himself in the playwrighting scene of 1960's San Fransisco. The tale is steeped in personal exploration, wrapped in Asian mythology and sprinkled with the dramatic flair of aunties retired from vaudeville. The scene in the toy department has a Sedaris-esque humor...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-literature, fiction

One of the best books I've ever read! A fantastical journey, if I may be so cliche...

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Dec 10, 2010 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

A really great book shows us how everything is great and worth to die for

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About Maxine Hong Kingston

She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in...more

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Quotes from Tripmaster Monkey: His...

“This is the most important thing about me--I'm a card-carrying reader. All I really want to do is sit and read or lie down and read or eat and read or shit and read. I'm a trained reader. I want a job where I get paid for reading books. And I don't have to make reports on what I read or to apply what I read.” — 93 people liked it

“Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people.” — 14 people liked it

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