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10 THE TRANSNATIONAL RURAL IN ALICIA
LITTLE’S MY DIARY IN A CHINESE FARM
Eliza S. K. Leong
Alicia Helen Neva Bewicke was an English feminist novelist and early leader
of the Anti-Footbinding Movement in China. She was born in Madeira in
1845, but spent most of her life abroad. In 1887, at the age of 41, she married
Archibald John Little and moved to Chongqing. Archibald Little was fi rst a tea
taster, and later a merchant and entrepreneur. As a British businessman who fi rst
reached China in the 1860s, Little had much prior experience in China. Alicia
Little had little knowledge about China, though she had travelled widely before
her marriage. Aft er their marriage, the Littles spent nearly two decades in China
between 1887 and 1907. Th ey fi rst stayed in Chongqing and later moved to
Shanghai. Aft er she reached China, Little studied Chinese and travelled exten-
sively along the Yangtze River and interior areas. She visited Chinese families,
took photographs, and began to write on China. Since her early twenties, Little
had been interested in writing. She published her fi rst novel, Flirts and Flirts;
Or, A Season at Ryde, at the age of 23. My Diary in a Chinese Farm (1895) is
probably her fi rst account among several on China.^1 Th e account started on 6
July 1893 and ended on 3 August 1894.^2 In 1894, Little travelled to Japan for a
short visit, where she met Kazumasa Ogawa, a Japanese photographer. In August
of that year, her diary was accepted for publication. Th e book was complied with
collotypes and photo-engravings that Kazumasa Ogawa printed at the Tokyo
Tsukiji Type Foundry. Th e book included seven collotype plates with tissue
guards, nineteen photo-engraved half-tone text illustrations and decorated
paper over cardboard covers. All plates and illustrations were by Ogawa.
My Diary in a Chinese Farm is an unpolished account of Little’s fi rst summer
spent in China. Due to the intense heat in Chongqing , the Littles spent their
summer in the hills on the other side of the Yangtze River, on a Chinese farm.
During her stay, Little recorded the details of life on the farm, interactions with
the locals and short excursions into the surrounding countryside. Little off ers a
candid view of her social interactions with Chinese women living in the inland
Chinese regions, which were rarely visited by British travellers. Her relationship
with these women magnifi es the connections between Britain and China.