Mrs. Spring Fragrance

One of the first works of fiction in English by a North American writer of Asian descent, Mrs. Spring Fragrance presents a complex and sympathetic picture of life in American Chinese communities in the early twentieth century. Far's seemingly simple stories of family life reveal the tensions created by cultural assimilation. Rather than embracing any particular identity, the stories show a cosmopolitan sensibility that embraces "the motley throng of all nationalitie" in the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. Appendices include materials on Chinese exclusion, missionaries and assimilation, and contemporary representations of Chinatown.