Afro-Asian Diaspora and the Eaton Sisters
Documenting the places and spaces where Winnifred and Edith Eaton lived and wrote
...it is necessary to act within but to think beyond our received humanist tradition and, all the while, to imagine a much more complicated set of stories about the emergence of the now, in which what is foreclosed as unknowable is forever saturating the "what-can-be-known." We are left with the project of visualizing, mourning, and thinking "other humanities" within this received genealogy of "the human" ― Lisa Lowe
Edith and Winnifred Eaton—or the “Eaton Sisters”—were born in the late nineteenth century to Chinese and English parents. In their writing, which transcended genres including poetry, short stories, journalistic articles, and travel nonfiction, the Eaton Sisters faced marginalization due to their mixed ethnic identities. Today, however, they are widely known as foundational figures in Asian American Studies, and their papers and writings are held made publicly available through institutions like the New York Public Library and the Winnifred Eaton Archive . Though the Eaton sisters worked primarily in Western Chinatowns and Japan, their writing traverses and crosses into various spaces, particularly Afro-Asian spaces like Jamaica. Their time in Jamaica and exposure to Blackness, particularly in the Jamaican context, informed how they understood and performed their own ethnic identities—an understanding that is reflected in their later works. This essay provides a glimpse into their diasporic travel, publishing works, and textual networks in Jamaica, which have not been given much focus to date.
As part of my doctoral research, I created a StoryMap to show the geographically complex and multi-sited character of the Eaton Sisters’ publication strategy. This StoryMap shows some of the places the Eaton sisters published, what they published, where they published, quotes from publications, and how the content engages with social forces like race, class, and immigration. It also explores the geographies of these archival texts, drawing attention to Afro-Asian identities, networks, and their place in Caribbean Studies. For example, the poem “ Sneer Not ”—published by Winnifred Eaton in 1896 in Gall’s Daily News Letter in Kingston, Jamaica—argues that the act of sneering is not a result of wealth and class, but instead, of experience.
The goal of the map is to show the reach of the Eaton Sisters’ work and identify what I call Afro-Asian intimacies. Here, I follow Lisa Lowe’s definition of intimacy as forms of contact (such as colonization) that can bring geographically distant people into closer relations—and even “cross-racial alliances”—with one another. In the Caribbean, Afro-Asian intimacies were forged through practices like indentureship with Chinese laborers in the nineteenth century and the creation of Caribbean Chinatowns in Kingston. Some scholars even speculate that the Eaton Sisters lived in or near a preemptive Chinatown. What does it mean to think of these intimacies as a form of kinship that can transcend different spheres of identity—Asian American, African American, and Caribbean—all at once?
A Poor Devil, Montreal, Quebec (1894-1895)
Published by the Metropolitan Magazine
Author: Winnie Eaton
"I had only one relative in the world—my mother. She lived in the country, and I had not seen her since I was a boy of fourteen, when I came to the city to earn my living. Nevertheless, I had to support her, and out of my $"
A Poor Devil is a narrative about a law clerk, and this quotation provides more context about how his identity as an immigrant shapes the ways his career, class relations, and familial obligation defines who he is, as someone who is always patronized.
"Sneer Not," Kingston, Jamaica (1896)
Published by the Gall’s Daily News Letter
Author: Winnifred Eaton
"Sneer not, ye cynics, who to school once went and talked with knowledge at her many marts [...] But rather court the grace that wisdom give"
"Sneer Not" looks at the act of sneering and how knowledge is not a result of wealth and class, but instead, experience. This quote provides more context about identity, knowledge curation, and class relations.
Li Ching’s Baby, Chicago, US (1898)
Published by Carter’s Monthly
Author: Onoto Watanna
"The Chinaman repeated glibly: “You bring me babee; you takee this one; you go some house where you workee; you stealee babee, I gib you this,” and he pointed at the gold with a long, cold finger"
Li Ching’s Baby takes place in a Canadian Chinatown and is about how a Chinese businessman steals his white employer's baby, when his wife gives birth to a stillborn. This quote shows how Winnifred uses her "Japanese persona" to contribute to Chinese prejudice. It also engages with themes of intimacy, identity, class, and orientalist perceptions.
"A Prayer for Understanding," Boston, MA (1899)
Author: Onoto Watanna
"Written by one who is not a Scientist, but who like a little child lost in the dark is crying vainly for the light. She does not know as yet what the “Key to the Scriptures” contains. The book lies before her. She will read it soon, and though she has been a freethinker all her life, she prays for understanding before opening it"
"A Prayer for Understanding" looks at the dichotomy between religion, beliefs, and knowing providing more context about the intimacies of faith, knowledge curation, and self.
Three Loves, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1901)
Published by The Puritan
Author: Winnifred Eaton
“Because it’ll take your ugly bangs out of curl,” said Carrots spitefully, shaking her own brilliant locks till they splashed all over Marie’s neatly laid artificial curls. It was Marie who had first called her “Carrots.”
Three Loves is a coming of age story about a girl and the sort of challenges she endures on account of her appearance. This excerpt looks at the relationship between intimacies, identity, and self.
Margot, New York City, NY (1901)
Published by Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly
Author: Onoto Watanna
"When he turned aside for her to pass into the carriage, he saw her trembling and swaying with a strange somnambulistic expression in her eyes. She must have fallen immediately, for when he put forth his hand to assist her, he saw nothing save the dim, sinuous outlines of the white figure fallen like a lily whipped by a brutal wind at his feet. The horses, cold and impatient, tossed their heads and stamped their feet. One of the wheels turned. It touched and crushed a little outstretched white arm"
Margot is about a violin playing protegee, and this excerpt looks at her racialization in relation to whiteness, identity, and being.
Three Loves [Reprint], London, England (1902)
Published by The Lady's Magazine
Author: Onoto Watanna
"She was half French and Half Irish, and her temper was as fiery as her hair"
This reprint is published in a British magazine, set in a British context, shorter, and is published under the pseudonym Onoto Watanna compared to the original, which is published under Winnifred Eaton.
This excerpt is included because its shows intimacies in how stories shift and change depending on the location, as well as the wide reach of Eaton Sisters' work.
Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian, New York City, New York (1909)
Publisher: The Independent
Sui Sin Far
"the word 'Chinese' conveys very little meaning to my mind, I feel that they are talking about my father and mother and my heart swells with indignation. When we reach home I rush to my mother and try to tell her what I have heard. I am a young child. I fail to make myself intelligible. My mother does not understand, and when the nurse declares to her, “Little Miss Sui is a story-teller,” my mother slaps me"
Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian is Sui Sin Far's ( Edith) autobiography. She writes about her experiences with racism, identity, and Chinese racialization during her childhood and broader life.
Mrs. Spring Fragrance, Chicago, Illinois (1912)
Published by A. C. McClurg & Co. of Chicago
Author: Sui Sin Far
"The daughter was a pretty girl whose Chinese name was Mai Gwi Far (a rose) and whose American name was Laura. Nearly everybody called her Laura, even her parents and Chinese friends."
Mrs. Spring Fragrance is about Jade, a first-generation Chinese American, who sets up her second-generation Chinese American friends, Laura Chin Yuen and Kai Tzu. But Laura's strict family has already arranged for her to get married to someone she doesn't love. Jade attempts to reunite them and this excerpt depicts the tension between identity, naming, and tradition.
Me: A Book of Remembrance, New York City, New York (1915)
Published by Century Company
Author Winnifred Eaton
"That objection as something too trivial to consider. Was I not the daughter of a man who had been back and forth to China no fewer than eighteen times, and that during the perilous period of the Tai-ping Rebellion? Had not my father made journeys from the Orient in the old-fashioned sailing-vessels, being at sea a hundred odd days at a time?"
Me: A Book of Remembrance is Winnifred's autobiography. She writes about Nora Ascouth's early life and writing career, in which Winnifred depicts the struggles of young working class women. This autobiography looks at the intimacies between race, gender, class, and internalized oppression.
Works Cited
Eaton, Winnie. “A Poor Devil.” Metropolitan Magazine Montreal, 1894-1895, Winnifred Eaton Reeve Fonds, 17.2. Eaton, Winnifred. “Sneer Not.” Gall’s Daily News Letter, 10 Mar. 1896. Lowe, Lisa. The Intimacies of Four Continents. Duke University Press, 2015.
Sui Sin Far, “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian,” Who Was Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton?, accessed August 8, 2024, https://suisinfar.omeka.net/items/show/10. Sui Sin Far . Mrs Spring Fragrance. Chicago, 1912. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62940/62940-h/62940-h.htm. Tang, Edward. "Asian American Literature, U.S. Empire, and the Eaton Sisters." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. July 02, 2015. Oxford University Press. 2024, Teng EJ. The Eaton Sisters and the Figure of the Eurasian. In: Srikanth R, Song MH, eds. The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature. Cambridge University Press; 2015:88-104. The Winnifred Eaton Archive. https://winnifredeatonarchive.org/index.html . Watanna, Onoto. “A Prayer for Understanding.” Christian-Science Monitor, Feb. 1899, p. 785. Watanna, Onoto. “Li Ching’s Baby.” Carter’s Monthly, vol. 8, iss. 4, Apr. 1898, pp. 401-403. Watanna, Onoto. “Margot.” Illustrated by Margaret Fernie. Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Dec. 1901, pp. 202-9. Watanna, Onoto. “Three Loves.” Illustrated by Charles Horell. Lady’s Magazine [England], July 1902, pp. 266-273. Watanna, Onoto. “Three Loves.” Illustrated by Charles Horell. Lady’s Magazine [England], July 1902, pp. 266-273.
Tripp, Colleen. “Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton).” Accessed August 12, 2024. https://cwi.pressbooks.pub/americanliterature/chapter/sui-sin-far-edith-maude-eaton/ .