Tripmaster Monkey

Wittman Ah Sing is a man who seems to be at odds with his own identity. In Wittman's own views of the world, a kind of uncertainty about who he is and where he fits in is constantly lurking below the surface. Though Wittman is an extremely human character, complete with flaws, secret desires, and constant regret of the past, he is constantly isolating himself from his fellow human beings. In his initial interaction with Nanci, Wittman takes her to City Lights and hopes that she will notice the paper in the corner that proves his talent and success. Wittman is constantly imagining a different past, present, and future for himself (essentially a different identity), which shows just how alienated he is by his own identity. On the one hand, Wittman feels a strong relationship to San Francisco's Chinese and Asian community, even making comments about all of the situations in which he sees racism against Asian Americans (especially in SF), but on the other hand, Wittman seems to fit in very well in the white (especially white American) community. He frequently alludes to Kerouac and other Beat generation writers, as well as many Classical English poets, but notes the racism that appears not only in much of their writing, but also in the city of SF itself.
There is an interesting but slightly odd passage in the beginning of Tripmaster Monkey that seems almost as though Wittman was meant to say it, but for some reason, Nanci says it:
'"When I smell Mahn Gum Yow," said Nanci, saying "Ten Thousand Gold Pieces Oil" very prettily, high-noting "gum," "I remember being sick in bed with the t.v. on. I got to play treasure trove with the red tins. I liked having a collection of gold tigers-- they used to be raised, embossed-- they're flat now-- with emerald eyes and red tongues. I thought Tiger Balm was like Little Black Sambo's Tiger Butter. That in India the tigers chase around the palm tree until they churn into butter. And here they churn into ointment."'
There is an interesting relationship to consumerism in this passage, especially because it is a reminiscence of products used during Nanci's childhood that she clearly developed a strong memory bond to. There is also a theme of change in the speech, not only in that Nanci is now an adult, but also in the fact that the appearance of the product (Mahn Gum Yow) has changed. In meaning, the passage seems straightforward, but the srange aspect lies in that there doesn't seem to be any particualr reason for Nanci to make such a statement-- it sort of springs out of nowhere. This seems more like something Wittman would do, and in fact, does do, only about a page later in the story.
Question: Do you think that Wittman identifies strongly with Beat culture (does he actually want to have been a Beat???), or does he simply view it as a movement that took place in the same city that he lives in, free for critique or approval?