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Post by Paddy on Jun 15, 2009 11:49:55 GMT -5
I'm currently reading a book by Sui Sin Far (aka Edith Maude Eaton) called Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings. It's a collection of short fiction and journalistic articles that she wrote for various North American news publications. I've mentioned her a couple of times in posts, but then had not yet begun reading her. These days she is a little known writer, but back in the day she was a pioneer of western (specifically North America) literature, and for several reasons; first, she was a woman; second, because she was Chinese; third, because she was Eurasian. Eaton (1865-1914) was born in England to a Chinese mother and English father. She was the eldest daughter among 13 children. At 7, she immigrated to the USA and spent her life traveling and writing throughout North America. Her fiction and her journalism primarily concerned the lives of the Chinese in North America, and she was known for her sympathetic coverage of he Chinese in a largely zenophobic (sinophobic) era. Read this short autobiographic article called, Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian (which also contained within Mrs. Spring Fragrance). Like Han Suyin, she is a pioneer and a role model. Her sister, Winnifred Lillie Eaton, was also a writer, but curiously wrote about the Japanese and Japan, and wrote under the name Otono Watanna. Leaves form the mental Portfolio of an Eurasianessays.quotidiana.org/far/leaves_mental_portfolio/
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Post by Groink on Jun 15, 2009 13:09:59 GMT -5
I'm just about done reading that excerpt, and I am intrigued by the fact that much of what she wrote about echoes true to this very day. Right down to very specific details, too. Good find, Paddy. edit: More links to selected works... www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/far.htm
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Post by Paddy on Jun 15, 2009 13:18:15 GMT -5
One thing that seems different is the esteem by which North Americans hold Japanese, rather than Chinese; that Chinese Eurasians would claim to be half Japanese might lessen the stigma of being mixed race. This is not the case now, is it? Here she is:
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Post by Groink on Jun 15, 2009 13:34:09 GMT -5
I think there is definitely a more favored cultural bias towards Japanese, at least in the US, than there is for Chinese. Mostly based on pop culture references and marketing (Sanrio, anime, automotive, j-pop, samurai/ninja folklore, etc). I don't know if that would translate to a situation where an EA would say "God, I wish I were half-Japanese!" over another.
Although I did choose to take Japanese over Chinese in language studies in high school. Maybe this is exposing my own personal biases? Eek.
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Post by rob on Jun 15, 2009 19:41:39 GMT -5
I'd like to see a scatterplot chart with 2 axes
Sample set: Reasonably homogenous set of EAs in the West (or even monoracial Asians) [.....or..... homogenous set of non-Asians/EAs.]
- X-axis: Per capita GDP of Asian country - Y-Axis: Some measurement/index of cultural pride/perception for the Asian country in question
The cultural perception index isn't *that* difficult to put together .... can be a test or even results from a keyword search from movies/google .... and a time series would be ideal so as to glean direction+correlation.
No shortage of holes in the analysis, but can anyone think of any better way to pin down the degree to which cultural perception depends on the economy of the country in question?
Me, I'm quite fascinated with the superiority complex that many Koreans, Japanese (and even Chinese now ) feel towards other Asians.... (much of which I think stems from US post war reconstruction and trade concessions leading to export led growth)..... and I think it subconciously extends to EAs as well.
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Post by Paddy on Jun 16, 2009 11:20:25 GMT -5
I don't find that it translates to how eas treat each other, perhaps I have just been lucky. I think that the point that is raised by the article is not about how EAs treat each other, but how people perceive EAs based on the nationality of their parents; ie Japanese is/was better than Chinese. Certainly, pre-WWII, Japan came to be perceived as a modern colonising nation much like the USA and her European counterparts, thus Japan had an international status reflecting that. China, on the other hand was a weak nation lurching from crisis to crisis, whose emigrants flocked to North America as laundrymen and labourers. It would be interesting to know whether, in the eyes of others, there might be a mixed blood hierarchy (whether EA or not) and whether this is hangover from the times of Sui Sin Far or an entirely modern construct. Any thoughts?
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Post by jefe on Jun 16, 2009 11:28:54 GMT -5
I think there is definitely a more favored cultural bias towards Japanese, at least in the US, than there is for Chinese. Mostly based on pop culture references and marketing (Sanrio, anime, automotive, j-pop, samurai/ninja folklore, etc). I don't know if that would translate to a situation where an EA would say "God, I wish I were half-Japanese!" over another. Although I did choose to take Japanese over Chinese in language studies in high school. Maybe this is exposing my own personal biases? Eek. I think you are making cultural references that are not relevant to late 19th century. The Chinese Exclusion act was passed in 1882, the first of its kind. The time period that the author was referring to was generally in the 1880s, early 1890s, when anti-Chinese sentiment was very high -- indeed, my great-grandfather who had come to the USA during this period (leaving my grandfather behind in China) was murdered by an anti-Chinese mob at this time. Japanese had yet to immigrate to the USA in large numbers and also yet to be excluded. In the 1880s / 1890s there was less animosity against the Japanese. Of course, this reversed during WWII, when China became USA's ally.
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Post by Paddy on Jun 16, 2009 11:40:03 GMT -5
The Chinese Exclusion act was passed in 1882, the first of its kind. The time period that the author was referring to was generally in the 1880s, early 1890s, when anti-Chinese sentiment was very high -- indeed, my great-grandfather who had come to the USA during this period (leaving my grandfather behind in China) was murdered by an anti-Chinese mob at this time. Japanese had yet to immigrate to the USA in large numbers and also yet to be excluded. In the 1880s / 1890s there was less animosity against the Japanese. Bearing in mind, too, that emigration of Chinese subjects from China was illegal with the travel ban only being lifted in 1896. Prior to that, it was only groups of men that travelled overseas, and illegally at that. Native populations saw them as 'unnatural' being without the company of women. And for a long while after the ban, the gender imbalance remained. This is one of the factors leading to concept of the Yellow Peril. Not only were the Chinese invading North America, but they also had no women!
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Post by Groink on Jun 16, 2009 12:48:27 GMT -5
I think you are making cultural references that are not relevant to late 19th century. Well, yeah, because I was responding to this point: This is not the case now, is it?
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Post by thesa on Jun 17, 2009 8:47:19 GMT -5
I don't find that it translates to how eas treat each other, perhaps I have just been lucky. I think that the point that is raised by the article is not about how EAs treat each other, but how people perceive EAs based on the nationality of their parents; ie Japanese is/was better than Chinese. Certainly, pre-WWII, Japan came to be perceived as a modern colonising nation much like the USA and her European counterparts, thus Japan had an international status reflecting that. China, on the other hand was a weak nation lurching from crisis to crisis, whose emigrants flocked to North America as laundrymen and labourers. It would be interesting to know whether, in the eyes of others, there might be a mixed blood hierarchy (whether EA or not) and whether this is hangover from the times of Sui Sin Far or an entirely modern construct. Any thoughts? I can't imagine different EAs being treated differently by 'others'. Maybe one factor that might play a role would be a family's 'class' or income, whether their parents were highly educated or not. But that's not even a race thing but unfortunately just a human thing. The ones with the money are the ones that get respect.
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Post by halfbreed on Jun 17, 2009 8:51:55 GMT -5
I believe it's a* Eurasian /grammarfreak
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Post by admin on Jun 17, 2009 9:06:32 GMT -5
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Post by Paddy on Jun 17, 2009 16:59:51 GMT -5
I wouldn't want to argue with a prolific author who would be 144 if she was still alive today! On a side note, she was the person who coined the term 'Chinese American' and first put it into print.
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Post by xandra on Jun 19, 2009 0:27:25 GMT -5
What a fantastic read, thanks so much for sharing that Paddy.
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jaz
New Member
Posts: 42
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Post by jaz on Jul 2, 2009 6:34:51 GMT -5
Amazing article - so great to learn that someone in 1890 so articulately expressed some of the issues that some of us still face today.
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