The 'Thrill' of Not Belonging: Edith Eaton (Sui Sin Far) and Flexible Citizenship

The British-born, Montreal-raised Edith Maud Eaton (1865-1914), who wrote under the pen name Sui Sin Far, was the first published author of Asian origin in North America. She began her writing career while working as a typesetter at the Montreal Daily Star, although she gained literary recognition only after moving to the United States. Her later writings told what life was like for a Chinese woman in white North America. However, she also contributed a large body of anonymous journalism to the Montreal Daily Witness and the Montreal Daily Star that documented the experiences of diasporic Chinese in Montreal and other parts of Canada. The author argues that although sympathetic to the Chinese, this early journalism challenges the common assumption that diasporic Chinese prior to the Chinese Revolution desired citizenship in either Canada or the United States.

Canadian Literature/Littérature canadienne

Vol. 212

191-195

Spring 2012

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