水仙花的文化身份

Sui Xin Far’s Cultural Identity Formation in Leaves from the

Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian

ⅠIntroduction

Sui Xin Far (1865-1914), originally named Edith Maud Eaton, is the first woman writer of Chinese descent in North America. She is celebrated as the “spiritual foremother of contemporary Eurasian writer” and the “ancestor of Chinese American literature”.

Born to a Chinese mother and an English father, Edith Maud Eaton embraced her mother's nationality at a time when it was not advantageous to be Chinese and wrote under the pseudonym Sui Sin Far, which means narcissus flower in Chinese. Sui Xin Far’s writing, which is widely read and favorably received, is mostly about Chinese people in the North America and their experiences. Many of her stories are collected in Mrs. Spring Fragrance and others published in a variety of popular newspapers. Through describing Chinese people’s experiences of struggling to live in a Sinophobe environment, Sui Xin Far explored the complex issues of racism, ethnocentrism, and biculturalism, identity and individuality. Most of her works reflect her devotion to the cause of counteracting the hatred and prejudice against Chinese people and her effort to make a change by means of her pen, to be the pioneer in bridging the Occident and the Orient (Parks: 1995).

In Sui Xin Far’s moving autobiographical essay written in her later years, Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian, Far probed troubling questions about her hybrid identity and told the evolution of her own understanding of her cultural identity. The essay reveals the process of her cultural identity formation----from identifying herself as a half Chinese, half English woman- Edith Maud Eaton, to claiming her Chinese nationality as Sui Xin Far, and accepts her hybrid identity as a Eurasian at last. The process is a testimony to Stuart Hall’s theory about cultural identity, which

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claims that “cultural identity is a never complete and an ongoing process, and it’s a matter of becoming as well as being” (Stall Hall, 1994). This paper uses Stuart Hall’s theory about cultural identity to analyze Sui Xin Far’s cultural identity formation in Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian, hoping to offer an alternative perspective to understand the construction of cultural identity and its relation to her works.

Ⅱ Stuart Hall’s Theory of Cultural Identity

According to Stuart Hall, There are two distinguished types of cultural identities, one is essentialist, narrow and closed; while the other is historical, encompassing and open. Therefore, cultural identity can be viewed in two ways--- cultural identity as being and cultural identity as becoming. The former way thinks of cultural identity as an already accomplished fact, as a constituted essence, a collective true self with a shared history and ancestry held in common. The latter way thinks of cultural identity as being produced, always in process and never completed (Stall Hall, 1994: 393).

Stuart Hall states in his essay Cultural Identity and Diaspora that, “cultural identity is a matter of becoming as well as being.” “It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture. Cultural identity is not a fixed essence at all, lying unchanged outside history and culture. It is not once-and-for-all.” “Cultural identities have histories and undergo constant transformation. Cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made, within the discourses of history and culture. It is not an essence but a positioning” (Stall Hall, 1994: 393-395).

In understanding cultural identity, we should reject the traditional model of viewing it as an already accomplished fact, a fixed essence. Instead, we should think of it as a production which is always in an ongoing process of being produced and influenced by historical, cultural and social factors.

Ⅲ Analysis of Cultural Identity Formation of Sui Xin Far in Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian

Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian reveals Sui Xin Far’s growing awareness of her cultural identity. Sui Xin Far’s cultural identity is not predesigned,

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fixed, but a product being produced and subject to changes. Sui Xin Far is a mixed-race with both Chinese and English cultural origin. Living at a time when the Chinese race and the European race had prejudice against each other and the Sinophobe atmosphere pervaded the North America Continent, she has difficulty in choosing her identity. Her cultural identity formation goes through three phases and gradually formed through her conscious choices and is subject to historical, cultural and social changes. At first, she has confusion about her cultural identity and later she identifies with Chinese culture by claiming her Chinese nationality and at last embraces her hybrid identity as a Eurasian---a connecting link of both Chinese and European cultures.

1. Sui Xin Far identifies herself as Edith Maud Eaton in her early years In Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian, Sui Sin Far employs the first person point of view, recounts her personal anecdotes in the form of flashbacks. Her memories of her life reveal her struggle to live as a mixed-race woman, the difficulty of being Eurasian, the development of her racial pride and the growing awareness of her cultural identity. The process of her cultural identity formation can be divided into three phases.

The first phase is from her childhood to early adulthood, when Sui Xin Far identifies herself as a half Chinese half English woman as Edith Maud Eaton. From her earliest memories as a child, Sui recognizes herself as being different from other children. At four years old, she hears her nurse highlights her difference by commenting to other that her mother is Chinese. For the first time, Sui is made to see herself as inferior to those who do not have Chinese blood in their bodies. For her, the idea of being Chinese means nothing until she becomes aware of the prevailing prejudice against Chinese race and the anti-Chinese mood in her surroundings. As a Eurasian, Sui Sin Far is different to both her mother and her father. And such a hybrid identity inflicts great confusion and pressure upon her. She feels that “the cross of the Eurasian bore too heavily upon her childish shoulders” (徐颖果，2008: 24). As she grows older, she learns to push outsiders away to avoid having to suffer their possible prejudice. At the age of ten, she is perplexed by the question of her nationality. She

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always asks such questions as:

\” “Why did God make us to be hooted and stared at? Papa is English, Mamma is Chinese. Why couldn't we have been either one thing or the other? Why is my mother's race despised?” Why? Why?\ (徐颖果，2008: 25)

Though confused and anxious, Sui Xin Far does not relate her problem to her parents, because she thinks it is impossible for them to understand. She is “different to both of them---a stranger though their own child”. Her anxiety and pressure in her early years results from feeling being caught in two cultures and being rejected by both of them. She refers to Chinese people as \mother's countrymen,\thus distancing herself from her Chinese heritage, yet she cannot assume the position of a white woman. And she suffers a lot of prejudice due to her Chinese origin. She always tries to get rid of such kind of suffering. When she has time she steals away into the library to read about books on China and Chinese people. After she learns more about Chinese civilization and its greatness, she develops a sense of superiority and feels pound being a Chinese. Yet her half-awaken self-consciousness, her inadequate knowledge about Chinese people and the then disadvantageous social environment in which Sinophobe pervades, keep her from asserting any certain cultural identity (Pendery, 2008: 203). At her early adulthood, she accepts herself as a mixed-race woman, using the name of Edith Maud Eaton when publish her writing, though in her heart she harbors a tendency to identify with Chinese culture and Chinese people.

2. Sui Xin Far identifies herself as a Chinese

As time passes, Eaton feels at odds with both mainstream American culture and Chinese culture. As a Chinese woman she is not accepted by American society, yet Americanized Chinese do not accept her as a member of their race. Rather than synthesizing the two cultures in herself, Sui Xin Far feels caught between East and West. Later she chooses to claim her mother's nationality as her own. Such cultural identity is a personal choice that clearly shows her identification with Chinese people and their culture and her commitment to Chinese community. The use of Sui Xin Far as her pen name in print marked the first important transformation in her cultural

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identity formation.

Far’s self-consciousness and self-reflection play an important role in forming her cultural identity. Her close identification with her mother and her association with Chinese people also account for her choosing her identity as Chinese. Her Chinese mother passes Chinese culture to her by her telling stories about China. When Far works for some newspapers, writing reports about Chinese people, she gets more chances to know them and gradually develops affinity with them. Her Chinese instincts develop. She takes delight in writing to defend Chinese people and fight for their rights. Her pride is expressed in her autobiographical essay:

\meet many Chinese persons, and when they get into trouble I am often called upon to fight their battles in the papers. This I enjoy. My heart leaps for joy when I read one day an article signed by a New York Chinese in which he declares, 'The Chinese in America owe an everlasting debt of gratitude to Sui Sin Far for the bold stand she has taken in their defense.'\ (徐颖果，2008: 27)

When confronted with prejudice against Chinese race, Sui Xin Far rises indignantly to defend and asserts her Chinese heritage. This is exemplified by her recount that when she finds herself caught in a conversation about the inferiority of Chinese, even though nobody suspects her heritage, she reveals herself to be Chinese. Sui Xin Far’s choosing to identify herself as a Chinese publicly and in print in the Sinophobe and imperialistic society at that time, though as a Eurasian woman she could pass as white, demonstrates her great courage and firm determination.

3. Sui Xin Far identifies herself as a Eurasian

The third phase of Sui Xin Far’s cultural identity formation is her later adulthood. As Sui Xin Far grows and learns more about the Chinese race and European race, she finds that both the two races hold prejudice against each other. As a Eurasian, her experiences of being prejudiced never cease, and she roams backward and forward across the continent. She feels that “When I am East, my heart is West. When I am West, my heart is East” (徐颖果，2008: 37). Nevertheless, Far thinks that the world will find harmony in racial mixture and solidarity one day. She combines this

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philosophy with strong individualism. As she explained in her final paragraph,

“I have no nationality and am not anxious to claim any. Individuality is more than nationality. ?You are you and I am I,? says Confucius. I give my right hand to the Occidentals and my left to the Orientals, hoping that between them they will not utterly destroy the insignificant ?connecting link.? And that?s all” (徐颖果，2008: 37).

This is the second significant transformation in her cultural identification. She accepts her hybrid identity, neither as a Chinese nor English, but as a Eurasian. She wishes to be one of the Eurasians that is the connecting link of two different races and different cultures. Though she continues to use the pen name Sui Xin Far, which carries an obvious implication of Chinese culture, she has accepted her cultural identity as a Eurasian in her later life and expresses such a identity position in her works.

Ⅳ Conclusion

Sui Xin Far’s process of cultural identity formation goes through three phases, from identifying herself as a half Chinese half English woman--- Edith Maud Eaton, to identifying herself as a Chinese and identifies herself as a Eurasian at last. This process is a dynamic, open and ongoing process. Her cultural identity is not fixed, but a product constructed under the influence of the history, the social environment and her individual conscious choices. It accords with Stuart Hall’s idea that cultural identity is a becoming as well as a being. Analyzing the process of Sui Xin Far’s cultural identity formation with Stuart Hall’s theory provides us an alternative perspective in understanding the formation of cultural identity of some Asian-American writers and their works.

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References

【1】徐颖果，《美国华裔文学选读》天津：南开大学出版社，2008年第二版，

第18-38页

【2】尹晓煌著，徐颖果主译，《美国华裔文学史》天津：南开大学出版社，2006.9 【3】Annette White-Parks. Sui Sin Far/Edith Maude Eaton: A Literary Biography.

Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

【4】Stuart Hall. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” Colonial Discourse & Postcolonial

Theory: A Reader. eds. Williams, Patrick & Laura Chrisman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 1st edition, 393-402.

【5】David Pendery. Identity Development and Cultural Production in the Chinese

Diaspora to the United States, 1850–2004: new perspectives, Asian Ethnicity, 2008. 201-218.

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