SOURCE: Song, Min. “The Unknowable and Sui Sin Far: The Epistemological Limits of ‘Oriental’ Sexuality.” In Q & A: Queer in Asian America, edited by David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom, pp. 304-22. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

In the following essay, Song examines the intersection of gender and cultural identity in Far's short story “The Smuggling of Tie Co.”

Sui Sin Far's “The Smuggling of Tie Co” (first published in 1900) literally and figuratively explores the borders that make an identity culturally legible.¹ In this story, Tie Co, a relatively successful Chinese “laundryman,” abruptly solicits the help of the snakehead Jack Fabian to move from an unspecified Canadian town to New York City.² Halfway through their arduous nighttime crossing, Tie Co reveals a deep romantic attachment to Jack, saying, “I not like women, like men” (Mrs. Spring Fragrance 189).³ As soon as Tie Co utters these words, he realizes that...