Sui Sin Far
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Sui Sin Far ( zh, t=水仙花, j=Seoi2 Sin1 Faa1, p=Shuǐ Xiānhuā, first=j, born Edith Maude Eaton; 15 March 1865 – 7 April 1914) was an author known for her writing about
Chinese people The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with Greater China, China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by ...
in North America and the
Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
experience. "Sui Sin Far", the pen name under which most of her work was published, is the
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
name of the narcissus flower, popular amongst Chinese people.


Life account

Born in
Macclesfield Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...
,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, Eaton was the daughter of
Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...
Edward Eaton, a merchant who met her Chinese mother Achuen Grace Amoy in
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Eaton was the eldest daughter and second child of fourteen children born to the couple. In 1865, her family left England to live in
Hudson, New York Hudson is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. On the east side of the Hudson River, f ...
,
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, but stayed there only a short time before returning to England in 1868. The family returned to North America in 1872, relocating to
Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, Canada. Her father worked as a clerk for Grand Trunk Railway and perhaps for Hudon Mills. In 1882, he left his job and attempted to earn a living through his art. Nonetheless, the children were educated at home and raised in an intellectually stimulating environment that saw both Edith and her younger sister Winnifred, who wrote under the pen name Onoto Watanna, become successful writers. Because of their poverty, at a young age, Edith Eaton left school to work in order to help support her family. By age 18, Eaton was setting type for the ''
Montreal Star ''The Montreal Star'' was an English language, English-language Canada, Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike. It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950 ...
''. She began writing as a young girl; her stories and poetry were accepted for publication in Montreal's '' Dominion Illustrated'' magazine, and, beginning in 1890, she published anonymous journalistic articles about the local Chinese community in Montreal's English-language newspapers, the ''Montreal Star'' and the ''Daily Witness''. She also worked as a stenographer and legal secretary. She left Montreal first in 1891 to work as a stenographer and special correspondent in what is now
Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...
. In 1896, she worked as a journalist for '' Gall's News Letter'' in Kingston, Jamaica, for about six months, and began to publish under her Chinese pen name. Eaton also published using a Chinese man's name, Wing Sing. Later, she moved to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
then in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
, before going to the east coast to work in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. While working as a legal secretary she continued to write. Although her appearance and manners would have allowed her to easily pass as an Englishwoman, she asserted her Chinese heritage after 1896 and wrote articles that told what life was like for a Chinese woman in white America. First published in 1896, her fictional stories about
Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
s were a reasoned appeal for her society's acceptance of working-class Chinese at a time when the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
maintained the
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States Code, United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for travelers an ...
, which banned Chinese immigration to the United States. Over the ensuing years, Eaton wrote a number of short stories and newspaper articles while working on her first collection of fiction. Published in June 1912, '' Mrs. Spring Fragrance'' was a collection that included some linked short stories that was marketed as a novel. Eaton never married. She died in Montreal and is interred in
Mount Royal Cemetery Mount Royal Cemetery ( French: Cimetière Mont-Royal) is a terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It opened in 1852. Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, a Reform Judaism burial ground, ...
. A study of Eaton and her life, ''Sui Sin Far/Edith Maude Eaton: A Literary Biography'' by Annette White-Parks, was published in 1995. ''Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism and Travel Writing by Edith Maude Eaton'' by Mary Chapman updates this earlier study.


Themes

As a child, Eaton witnessed hatred of and prejudice against Chinese people. This inclined her to write on the Chinese experience, with some of her works focusing on her own experiences as a Chinese person. In ''In the Land of the Free'', Eaton writes about what it meant to be a Chinese woman in a white man's world. Many of Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton's unsigned works are about the daily lives of Chinese people in Canada and the United States. The topics of these pieces range from the food Chinese people eat to the things they do for fun.


Contemporary interests

Many academics cite Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton as one of the first North American writers of Chinese ancestry. For this reason, there has been recent interest in Sui Sin Far's works and their revival. Mary Chapman, a professor in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, has published ''Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism, and Travel Writing by Edith Maude Eaton'', a collection of 70 of Eaton's early writings. Most of these pieces had not been republished since their first appearance in newspapers. She is also the director o
the Winnifred Eaton Archive
Ying Xu, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of English and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of New Mexico, has also been conducting scholarly work on Sui Sin Far. She contributed to the article "Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far)". In 2017, she published "Sui Sin Far’s “The Land of the Free” in the era of Trump","Sui Sin Far’s “The Land of the Free” in the era of Trump"
/ref> which makes connections between Far's writings and the current socio-political climate of the
Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
era.


Published works

*Far, Sui Sin. '' A Chinese Ishmael and Other Stories''. Dodo Press, 2009. *Far, Sui Sin. '' Mrs. Spring Fragrance''. A. C. McClurg, 1912. *'' Chan Hen Yen, Chinese Student'' (1912) *'' A Love Story from the Rice Fields of China'' (1911) *'' The Bird of Love'' (1910) *'' An Autumn Fan'' (1910) *'' Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian'' (1909)


Unnamed works

Mary Chapman's ''Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism, and Travel Writing by Edith Maude Eaton'' includes a working bibliography of Eaton's unsigned works: *"The Land of the Free." ''Montreal Daily Witness'', 15 March 1890: 8. *"The Ching Song Episode." ''Montreal Daily Witness'', 17 April 1890: 6. *"A Chinese Party." ''Montreal Daily Witness'', 7 November 1890: 7. *"Girl Slave in Montreal. Our Chinese Colony Cleverly Described. Only Two Women from the Flowery Land in Town." ''Montreal Daily Witness'', 4 May 1894:10. *"Seventeen Arrests." ''Montreal Daily Witness'', 10 July 1894: 1. *

See also

*
Winnifred Eaton *List of women writers">Winnifred Eaton (writer)">Winnifred Eaton *List of women writers *List of Asian-American writers *Chinese American literature *History of Chinese Americans


References


External links


An Immortal Book: Selected Writings by Sui Sin Far
a
Cita Press
(open access indie press)
Essays by Sui Sin Far
a
Quotidiana.org
* Short radio script and audi

at
California Legacy Project Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds t ...
.
Eaton
at Digitized Collections,
Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...
, Coll. Canada's Early Women Writers (with a photograph)
Eaton
at
Dictionary of Canadian Biography The ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (''DCB''; ) is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The ''DCB'', which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toro ...
, vol. 14, by Lorraine McMullen * * Seiwoong Oh: ''Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature.'' Series: Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Literature. Facts on File, 2007
''The Land of Sunshine'' 13:5 (Nov. 1900), 336
has her picture and a biographical note by C. F. Lummis. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Far, Sui Sin 1865 births 1914 deaths Anglophone Quebec people English emigrants to Canada People from Macclesfield Journalists from Quebec Writers from Montreal Canadian women short story writers American short story writers of Chinese descent Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian writers of Asian descent American journalists of Chinese descent American women short story writers 19th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 19th-century Canadian women writers 19th-century American short story writers American women non-fiction writers Pseudonymous women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery American women journalists of Asian descent 19th-century American women writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers British emigrants to the United States