Mrs.Spring Fragrance: Representations of Traditional Chinese in the US?

I felt the characterizations of Jade Spring Fragrance and Mr. Spring Fragrance to be caricature-like at times. These characters were not "real" to me, but rather stand-ins for the authorial voice to represent traditional Chinese gender roles and as serve as cultural ambassadors in the text.

After briefly researching the author Sui Sin Far (aka Edith Maude Eton), I made much better sense of the purpose of the short story. As a writer of mixed Chinese and white ethnicity, I believe Far wrote this story to present her own experiences as an Asian-American living in the US and Canada at the turn of the 20th century.

For me, Mr. Spring Fragrance is reduced to his gender expression and cultural myths --both traditional Chinese and somewhat "American," by the story's end.  We can understand early in the narrative that he sees himself as separate from women and the role of his wife; he is initially described as "not wishing to hear more of the secret talk of women" (506) when overhearing his wife speak with Laura. To emphasize this separation of the sexes, he is positioned usually in the exterior (veranda, lawn), leaving the inner domestic spaces for his wife to occupy. In several episodes, Mr. SF, completely befuddled by American ways, inquires to the American neighbor next door, about various points of American culture. This unnamed neighbor is described as a "star student. . .[who] had not the slightest doubt that he could explain the meaning of all things in the universe" (507), and he happily answers Mr. SF's inquiries. When Mr. SF asks this neighbor about American poetry (the Tennyson quotation about love lost), he doesn't agree with his neighbor's liberal romantic view, and thinks on "the unwisdom of the American ways at looking at things" (507). Later, Mr. SF discusses traditional Chinese arranged marriages with this neighbor. The American neighbor declares "Love, in this country, must be free, or it is not love at all" (511) to which Mr. SF replies, "In China it is different!" (511) It seems these two characters are positioned in opposition to demonstrate literal dialogue between American and Chinese cultures. Either figure serves as a mouthpiece of his culture.

As for Mrs. Jade Spring Fragrance, she describes herself as Mr. Spring Fragrance's "obedient woman" (509) and moves to call him a "superior sex" (509). For her, the only fault in her marriage is when Mr. SF does not give her a "certain jadestone pendant" on their wedding anniversary (509). Besides her traditionally subordinate position, she is depicted as a mischievous match maker, as she secretly organizes the weddings of Ah Oi and the school teacher's daughter so that Laura and Kai Tzu could be together. I believe this characterization to be a blend of traits of traditional Chinese and American, which is perhaps to articulate the narrator's assertion that Jade is more Americanized.

Considering the way that her characters are presented in this piece, what is Sui Sin Far saying about the Chinese experience in America ---particularly involving love and marriage; is she presenting an authentic portrait? I think this short story to be charming, but it took a second reading and some biographical information for me to better understand the characterizations at work.