Watanna, Onoto

From the Chinese-British Canadian author Winnifred Eaton, writing under a pseudonym, comes the story of two Japanese girls, identical sisters. One, Sado-ko, is a princess; the other Masago, a lowly country maid. Both are unhappy with their intended fiances and destinies and when they meet, a plan is made to exchange identities.

"The Heart of Hyacinth, originally published in 1903, tells the coming-of-age story of Hyacinth Lorrimer, a child of white parents who was raised from infancy in Japan by a Japanese foster mother and assumed to be Eurasian. A crisis occurs when, eighteen years after her birth, her American father returns to Japan to reclaim her just as Hyacinth has become engaged to a Japanese aristocrat, and she forcefully asserts her Japanese ties only to find that her prospective father-in-law will not tolerate a white wife for his son. Onoto Watanna creates in her protagonist a young white woman who not only claims a Japanese identity but shifts between her Japaneseness and her whiteness as expediency dictates. In this novel Watanna is on the cutting edge of what we now call race theory, using that theory - of racial constructions and fluidity - in the service of an avant-garde feminism."--BOOK JACKET.

The first known novel by an Asian-American, Miss Nume of Japan charts the romantic history of two couples, one Japanese and one American. The Japanese couple, though not really in love, has been betrothed since childhood. The relationship of the second couple, a beautiful American and her fiance, is troubled and unhappy. Through a series of coincidental encounters, the couples find opportunities to escape these loveless relationships. Although tragic events unfold, her spirit enables the title character to triumph in her search for liberation and true happiness. Now available in paperback, Miss Nume of Japan is a work of critical importance to the Asian-American canon and a milestone in the complex history of ethnic formation and literary production.