Sin Sui Far and historical relevance

If students are to appreciate the work of Edith Eaton fully, they must be given its historical and social context. Namely, the reception of Chinese by dominate Americans before and during her period. Students should know that though the Chinese were never enslaved in this country, as were Africans, they were brought here in large numbers as indentured laborers or coolies. The Chinese Exclusion Act was only repealed in 1943 and naturalized citizenship for Asians was permitted in 1954, long after African-Americans and American Indians were recognized as American citizens. Initially attracted to California by the discovery of gold in the mid-nineteenth century, by the l860s thousands of Chinese laborers were enticed here to construct the mountainous western section of the transcontinental railroad. Almost from the beginning, prejudice against them was strong. They were regarded as an alien race with peculiar customs and habits that made them unable to assimilate in a nation that wanted to remain white. Their hard-working, frugal ways, their willingness to work for lower wages than whites, left them an economic threat and thus targets of racial prejudice and Violence

Like Howells, Sui Sin Far demands in fiction a truthful depiction of Americans; her rewriting, however, represents an adaptation of mainstream realism because it focuses on Americans who had, before she wrote, little voice in American literature. Amy Ling characterizes Sui Sin Far's writing as among one of "the earliest attempts by Asian subalterns to speak for them" . Offering alternative perspectives on American identity and culture, Sui Sin Far, along with many of her contemporary writers of color, actively challenged mainstream readers' preconceptions and contributed to a social climate in which increasing numbers of writers of color made their voices heard in print. In doing this, she engaged a shift from margin to center that posited the "Other" as speaking voice, thereby dramatizing the injustices that plagued race relations in North America.

In "Leaves" she describes through personal anecdotes, her growing awareness of her own ethnic identity, her sensitivity to the curiosity and hostility of others, the difficulty of the Eurasian's position, and the development of her racial pride. The other theme apparent in "Leaves" and in many of her short stories is Eaton's defense of the independent woman. The biographical fact that Eaton herself never married and the intimate details of her journal entries would indicate that she is telling her own story, but she refrained from identifying herself out of a delicate sense of modesty.

Amy Ling, Elizabeth Ammons, Annette White-Parks as prominent Sui Sin Far scholars ascribe the author's transgressive power to the irony and subtlety in her writing, not to any sermonizing racial accusations. Annette White-Parks congratulates Sui Sin Far's for getting published at all in the heavily sinophobic atmosphere of her time. If Sui Sin Far's project was to give voice to the exploited, hated, fetishized Chinese in America and to indict white America for this injustice, how indeed did Sui Sin Far get published? White-Parks notes that Sui Sin Far took advantage of the Canadian newspapers tendency to omit the bylines of fledgling writers. Sui Sin Far also submitted her work anonymously or signed it with her Christian name, "Edith Eaton." In "The Origin of a Broken Nose"(1899), an early fiction piece published in The Canadian Dominion Illustrated, signed Edith Eaton, Sui Sin Far creates a story of a lascivious man who, scheming to seduce a young woman under the pretense of offering her warmth and shelter from the winter cold, slips on ice and breaks his nose. The young woman rushes to help him to his feet, reversing the dynamics of who is "rescuing" whom. This story, White-Parks says, though predating her exploration of Chinese themes, is the incipient moment of Sui Sin Far's production of subtexts where the oppressed prevails over oppressor. White-Parks calls this strategy Sui Sin Far's "hallmark" of style and names it under the rubric of tricksterism.

Some topics in this essay:
Sui Sin, Dean Howells, Sin Far's, Edith Eaton, America Current, American Indians, San Francisco, Contrast Critics, Choo Character, Land Free, sui sin, sui sin far's, sin far's, edith eaton, short stories, american realism, amy ling, chinese america, land free, deal justly, chinese woman, deal justly ourselves, true representations american, chinese exclusion act, wore american clothes,