The Lives and Stories of Early Asian Americans

It would be incorrect to say that Asian American literature began during the Civil Rights Movement. Since the late nineteenth century, Chinese American immigrants such as Yan Phou Lee and Yung Wing wrote autobiographies about their lives in China and the United States. In the early twentieth century, Sadakichi Hartmann and Yone Noguchi introduced the haiku and tanka into English-language poetry. Sisters Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud Eaton) and Onoto Watanna (Winnifred Eaton) wrote short stories and novels addressing the Otherness of Asian American identity. Offering pieces from 1887 to 1923, this anthology highlights the earliest works written by Asian Americans. Through their perspectives of American culture, each of these eleven writers makes an important contribution to the roots of Asian American literature.