miller's crossing

Wittman Ah Sing is a young Chinese-American hippie in San Francisco during the late sixties. Named after America's quintessential poet, indominatbly garrulous and free-spirited, Wittman is a American as James Dean. Yet he also bears a striking resemblance to Monkey, the trickster-saint of Chinese legend who helped bring the Buddhist scriptures from India.

-- from the blurb on the back of Maxine Hong Kingston's novel Tripmaster Monkey: his fake book

Other Wittman links:

• Department store passage from Tripmaster Monkey
• Blog post "Secret revealed"
• Blog post "Standing amok"