Reviews

MRS. SPRING FRAGRANCE by Sui Sin Far is a collection of loosely connected short stories set in the late 19th/early 20th century about life as a Chinese American. The author, born Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914) to a Chinese mother and English father, was the first person of Asian descent to publish fiction in the U.S. (pen name Sui Sin Far). The stories in this collection are invaluable for giving modern readers a glimpse of the deep-seated prejudices of that era, the tensions of assimilation versus retaining “Chinese”-ness, how love and friendship was expressed between Chinese Americans as well as interracially, and the struggles of remaining an outsider in an adopted homeland.

In these brief sketches, so much happens: premature death, unrewarded sacrifice, tested loyalties, love returned or withheld. While the writing style shows its age, the trenchant observations and themes are strikingly relevant today. We are still dealing with racism. We are still dealing with the perpetual foreigner myth. People of mixed race often still feel like they don’t belong to either group. Sui’s ability to write about these issues with such foresight astounds me.

My favorite story was probably the last, written as more of a personal narrative, in which Sui lays bare the raw emotion of being “Eurasian” - half Chinese and half white - in a time when this was rare and disparaged. Her anguish, it seems, is at least in part what drove her to become a writer and champion of the Chinese.

Don’t snooze on C Pam Zhang’s intro to this edition, either - it provides helpful perspective and context for framing these stories.

This is truly backlist gold, in that it is one of few primary sources we have into life as an Asian American at the turn of the century. As I’ve been doing @reggiereads #10Books10Decades challenge, I’ve reflected on how the paucity of AAPI literature we have prior to the 1960s is absolutely due to laws enacted with racist intention like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and others. We honor Sui and other pioneers by continuing to read her words today.