Autobiographer
Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton (SSF/EE) has often been declared the first writer to chronicle Chinese experiences in North America from an "insider's perspective." Her mother, Grace, was of Chinese heritage, and SSF/EE's autobiographical writing makes clear that while she sometimes self-identifies simply as Chinese, she also considered herself biracial or Eurasian, a figure on the border of two very different cultures. As she writes in "Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian" "I do not confide in my father and mother. They would not understand. How could they? He is English, she is Chinese. I am different to both of them—a stranger, tho their own child."
Born in England in 1865, SSF/EE emigrated to North America with her parents in the early 1870s and spent most of her adolescence and early adulthood in Montreal; however, she travelled frequently, and lived and worked in Jamaica, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston.
She writes vividly of her experiences across North America and in the West Indies, comparing different coasts ("Out West, prejudice is not nearly so bitter as it is in the East—not against the Chinese. It never was as petty as the Eastern prejudice") and different towns. These pieces offer a snapshot of early 20th century attitudes towards not only Chinese people but also other racialized groups, primarily Japanese and blacks. Her writing also captures the experience of a highly sensitive person (from "Leaves": "My mother’s screams of agony when a baby is born almost drive me wild, and long after her pangs have subsided I feel them in my own body. Sometimes it is a week before I can get to sleep after such an experience") who nevertheless chose to support herself by her pen, living far away from her family and refusing (by her own account) many opportunities to marry.
In poor health for much of her life, SSF/EE died in 1914, at the age of 49. Her body is buried at Mont Royal Cemetery in Montreal, marked by a tombstone that reads "Erected by her Chinese friends, in grateful memory."