Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912) by Sui Sin Far
Among the first works of fiction in English by a North American writer of Asian descent, the stories collected in>Mrs. Spring Fragrance present a complex and sympathetic picture of life in American Chinese communities in the early twentieth century. Far's seemingly simple stories of family life reveal the tensions created by cultural assimilation. Rather than embracing any particular identity, the stories show a cosmopolitan sensibility that embraces the motley throng of all nationalities' in the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown.
Appendices include materials on Chinese exclusion, missionaries and assimilation, and contemporary representations of Chinatown.
Among the first works of fiction in English by a North American writer of Asian descent, the stories collected in>Mrs. Spring Fragrance present a complex and sympathetic picture of life in American Chinese communities in the early twentieth century. Far's seemingly simple stories of family life reveal the tensions created by cultural assimilation. Rather than embracing any particular identity, the stories show a cosmopolitan sensibility that embraces the motley throng of all nationalities' in the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown.
Appendices include materials on Chinese exclusion, missionaries and assimilation, and contemporary representations of Chinatown.
“Hsuan LHsu has done a great service to any reader interested in the work of Sui Sin Far, Chinese American life, or American racial attitudes. Hsu combines the complete text of Sui Sin Far’s groundbreaking fiction collection with a thoughtful selection of documents from the turn of the century that illuminate how Americans saw Chinese immigrants. The result is a valuable resource for scholars, teachers, and students.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen, University of Southern California
“Before this informative and meticulously researched critical edition of Mrs. Spring Fragrance, learning about Sui Sin Far was arduous, even though the number of publications on her work has been growing steadily since the 1990s. With this book in hand, readers who encounter Sui Sin Far for the first time have an enormous head start over those of us who worked with musty fragments scattered in distant archives. Hsuan L. Hsu gives us not only the story collection composed by Sui Sin Far herself, in which each story provides a context for the others; in the appendices he also provides a rich selection of period texts and images that will inspire teachers, students, and researchers.” — Dominika Ferens, author of Edith and Winnifred Eaton: Chinatown Missions and Japanese Romances
Hsuan L. Hsu is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781554810277 |
| ISBN 10 | 1554810272 |
| Title | Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912) |
| Author | Sui Sin Far |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Broadview Press Ltd |
| Year published | 2011-10-30 |
| Number of pages | 300 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |