| The present study is basically motivated by interactions of four thematic strands in Maxine Hong Kingston's first novel Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book: ethnic politics vs. the Buddhist pacifism, the 1960s' counter culture vs. a new consciousness of art, or "an aesthetics of liberty." While Maxine Kingston's work could be regarded as an effort to carry on the 1960s' idealism and fervent pursuit of arts, it is also a totally new literary effort because it has deeply involved such factors almost unseen in history of American literature: a minority American's self-consciousness as an artist in the face of raging racism and consumerism, the intricate interweaving of genres and American, European, and Chinese artistic traditions, and the painful conflicts between Maxine Kingston's aim to help start an insurrection of imagination and arts and the current theoretical paradigm of cultural studies that emphasizes social and historical forces.;The most prominent feature in Maxine Kingston's novel is a Chinese American hippie cast in the trope of the mythic Monkey King and enriched at the same time with frequent references to the Beat writers and the protagonist in the German writer Rainer Maria Rilke's novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Exploring along this line, one could find the predominant theme of the Buddhist pacifism, Kingston's effort to create a new artistic consciousness, the significance behind her interweaving of genres and diverse artistic traditions, and her strategy to transcend the identity episteme and ethnic politics. Situated at the intersection of the current theoretical, political, and artistic trends, Maxine Kingston's novel is an innovative and brilliant artistic response to the present-day American life. |
