Tripmaster Monkey and Hollow City

TripMaster Monkey and Hollow City

 

In Tripmaster Monkey :His Fake Book,  by Maxine Hong Kingston presents a more multi-cultural city filled with adventure. In the 60s in the bay- area, there were all types and ethnicities living there at the time. However, the protagonist, Wittman Ah Sing, struggles with the multi-ethnic community as he tries to find his own identity. He wants to be part of both his Chinese community, but also be able to live in the modern American city. It is hard for him to be looked at as one thing, especially when his Chinese community views him as a modern American disvaluing Chinese tradition and Vise-versa. Overall, Wittman just wants to be a solid mix of the two cultures and Kingston parallels this with the mixing of the city itself.

On the other hand, Rebecca Solnit presents San Francisco as a city that is slowly becoming deprived of culture. Hollow City is a nostalgic book that explains how San Francisco has developed over time getting rid of the past and turning it into a cosmopolitan city. The images in Solnit’s novel are mostly images of what once was and what has become of it. She documents its gentrification process and how it affects artistry and the cultural aspects of the city. She explains that housing, studios, and workplace prices raised and almost doubled in some aspects, which forced people out of their own spaces. The city has basically been “hollowed out” by the rich white yuppies coming in and taking over with their money.