Trapped
An important question Lape asks is: "can an American identity be asserted apart" from ethnicity? Are they intertwined in such a way that one can't be recognized without the other. Certainly, a great many political actions were taking place in the 19th century, some of which were affecting the Chinese-American experience--from the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Page Law of 1875 to some of the prejudicial state laws.
Lape writes that Sui Sin Far's story, "In the Land of Fire" offers "a social analysis of the ways in which exclusion laws enter the private sector and disrupt immigrant family life." She was able to give a first-hand account of Chinese-American life, without the oft-seen editorialized prejudices and stereotypes of that period. As Lape says, "Sui Sin Far was working against a body of writing that created confusion about Chinese marital customs and aided in sustaining cultural conflict between Chinese and Anglos."
Even as these sisters struggle to find their voices and identities in American society, Onoto Watanna proclaims in "Me: A Book of Remembrance" (1915): "What I ardently believed to be the divine sparks of genius, I now perceived to be nothing but a mediocre talent that could never carry me far."
Lape writes that Sui Sin Far's story, "In the Land of Fire" offers "a social analysis of the ways in which exclusion laws enter the private sector and disrupt immigrant family life." She was able to give a first-hand account of Chinese-American life, without the oft-seen editorialized prejudices and stereotypes of that period. As Lape says, "Sui Sin Far was working against a body of writing that created confusion about Chinese marital customs and aided in sustaining cultural conflict between Chinese and Anglos."
Even as these sisters struggle to find their voices and identities in American society, Onoto Watanna proclaims in "Me: A Book of Remembrance" (1915): "What I ardently believed to be the divine sparks of genius, I now perceived to be nothing but a mediocre talent that could never carry me far."
Reading the Obscurity
In the end, it may not be so important how these writers felt, or what they intended their works to be or become. These works are "noncanonical," which means they aren't widely studied in academic circles. While these writers and their works are complex and varied, perhaps the most important factor that links these writers together is how they all managed to make a difference to multicultural literary history. Lape writes: Besides their obvious interest to scholars in American studies and cultural studies, for those interested in multicultural literature the writings raise timely and provocative issues about the relation between culture and literature, the function of stereotypes in ethnic writing, and the contributions of marginalized writers to literary history... It may be enough to say that these writers contributed to the cultural and literary dialogue. American literature is made up of many strands... Sometimes, it's refreshing to be reminded of a few strands that have been forgotten, or are hardly remembered.
