Wittman Ah Sing

Wittman is a very complex character and I have yet to fully figure him out, and assume that I never fully will. His train of thoughts and ideas is what most interests me. His radical paranoia and tendency to jump to conclusions I think are linked with his uncertainty and untrustworthiness towards others. I respect his notion to find an educated woman with whom to converse with. Despite his motivations to find an attractive girl to be with; his motivation to find a worldly and open-minded individual is intriguing to me. His expectations of Nanci in the beginning of the novel perpetuate his relationship with Tana. He is always expecting something more of Nanci, and in the beginning I thought he would never be satisfied with any woman no matter how intellectual she really is.

But in his developing relationship with Tana he reveals some of his insecurities in introducing his new "white" wife to his family. He cannot help but compare the two cultures: "We wouldn't mind our fathers so much if Caucasian daddies weren't always hugging hello and kissing goodbye,"(205) illustrating the differences between his perception on his own lifestyle and that of his wife's. His expectations of Tana are always exceeded. He continually expects her to say all the misunderstandings of his previous girlfriends, when in fact she always says what he wished he would have said. As the novel progresses, I cannot but assume that these two individual are one in the same. The only difference is that Tana's mind is not represented in the first person as much as Wittman, so as the reader, we usually see Tana through the eyes of Wittman.

Kingston does an excellent job of representing Wittman's stream of consciousness whenever he is contemplating his own paranoia and insecurities. When Wittman confronts some white folks sitting at another table in a restaurant, the reader really sees into his train of thought, "Wittman turned to see what they looked like. They looked like the kind who entertain one another with race jokes."(214). This scene illustrates Wittman's frustration with the race relations within his time. His perception of culture and race are both Chinese and American, and this scene illustrates his ability to act like an American while maintaining his Chinese identity. His dual identity is what contributes to most of his paranoia. It is apparent that he distances himself from the stereotypical Chinese imagery represented within American culture. But he is not unaware of the jokes and negative representations of Chinese culture.

He struggles to remain proud and yet individualized from Chinese culture. He does not denounce his Chinese ethnicity unless he finds the separation of ethnicity to his benefit. When he meets the Chinese woman on the bus heading to a party, he engages in some stereotyping of Chinese within his own thoughts: "Nosiness must be a Chinese racial trait. She was supposing in the first place, that he was Chinese, and therefore, he had to hear her out.(74). This scene is interesting to me due to his failure to claim his real identity and his complete dislike of this female character. His own shaping of his identity is a new age way of thinking. I think that this generational gap between his mother, as a Chinese performer, and himself as detached from mainstream commodities and media, challenge the culture of Chinese-Americans. He is changing the culture with his new generation, and the American culture that is shaping his mentality and understanding of what it is to be Chinese.