On The Construction Of Communities In Tripmaster Monkey:His Fake Book

Maxine Hong Kingston(1940-),one of the most influential writers in the history of Chinese American literature,has made great contribution to promoting Chinese American literature into the American mainstream literature league.Her masterpiece Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book,with its typical postmodern style,a whole new storyline,and a mischievous protagonist,disappoints some critics who have been expecting the reappearance of another book full of ghosts and exotic names.Therefore,this novel has received mixed reviews since its publication.Although not as wide as the first two works,some relatively comprehensive and in-depth interpretations of this novel by scholars at home and abroad on writing techniques,character analysis,and identity issues lay a good foundation for further researches.As for the notion of community embedded in Tripmaster Monkey,even though a few domestic scholars have explored this aspect,there are few related studies based on the community theory.With the development of society and history,the word “community” is no longer limited to a literal entity,but endowed with a natural emotion and wish shared by everyone.The formulation of the community thoughts turns out to be a developmental process,and naturally,the construction of community is dynamic and multi-layered.As the ties between individuals as well as between individuals and groups move to a higher-level state step by step,the level of community built on these ties expands accordingly.Under the guidance of the community theory,this thesis is to explore the construction and reconstruction of multi-layered communities in Tripmaster Monkey,aiming to show that this novel is Kingston’s direct response to two major social problems of the 1960 s in America,that is,racism and war,and to express an ideal that Kingston as an ethnic member wishes to achieve in the future,that is,to form an inclusive community where racial and cultural differences are played down.In Tripmaster Monkey,the protagonist Wittman is mobile,both physically and mentally.Perception,reflection,and action are three stages that he has to experience in the process of constructing community of each level.It is a deepening process.In the context of racism and the Vietnam War,and in the course of the protagonist’s self-transformation,this thesis thinks that Wittman constructs communities of three layers,from the Chinese community to the Asian American community and then to the increasingly inclusive community.At first,aware of the long-term racial prejudice against colored people in the American mainstream,Wittman steps out of the individual state to integrate into the Chinese community,defends a group of people with common physical characteristics and cultural roots,and tries to find a foothold for them in a multiracial country.Then,Wittman finds that Chinese Americans should not have a unitary unity,but a hybrid cultural identity.He makes clear his location as an American and then sets out to construct the Asian American community.Finally,the emergence of war threatens the existing community peace.To this end,with the help of diverse actors and a hybridized play,Wittman succeeds in staging a long-planned theater in the Pear Garden.Accordingly,a comprehensive picture of the increasingly inclusive community is presented.This thesis is composed of five chapters plus Introduction and Conclusion.The first chapter is devoted to the literature review on Tripmaster Monkey both at home and abroad,and briefly expounds the research subject and significance of the thesis.The second chapter mainly introduces the community theory with focus on its major concerns to provide a theoretical support for the following textual interpretation.The third chapter dissects the contexts of community-building in Tripmaster Monkey from the perspective of the text background and its protagonist.The fourth and the fifth chapters mainly discuss two dynamic community constructions made by the protagonist,with the former aimed at exploring the first dynamic construction from the Chinese community to the Asian American community,which takes the Chinese race as a starting point,then goes beyond the race and rises into Asian ethnicities;while the latter devoted to the impact of war-related factors on the Asian American community first and then to the protagonist’s reconstruction of the increasingly inclusive community with diversity and hybridity as common values,thereby alleviating the racial and cultural differences.Through interpreting the construction and reconstruction of multi-layered communities in this novel,this thesis not only provides new ideas for later research,but also provides a new path to mitigate racial differences and cultural distinctions.Also,this thesis argues that Tripmaster Monkey highlights Kingston’s attention to the realistic problems and her social responsibility as a minority writer.Namely,Kingston spreads the thoughts of community and presents an ideal society in her mind with the help of literature so as to call for the building of a multicultural and inclusive community,which is very enlightening to contemporary people in the context of globalization.