Th e Transnational Rural in Alicia Little’s My Diary in a Chinese Farm 147
ness is based on nostalgic memories of the English rural. Th us her diary is tied
up with multiple ironies. For example, during Little’s stay at the Chinese farm,
a robbery occurred. Aft er it was reported, the Littles discovered that they had
‘unwittingly set in motion the local judicial apparatus’,^9 as the Chinese authori-
ties had brought the accusation of robbery against the farm owner’s son. Aft er
having confessed under torture, the son pleaded guilty to the robbery. Th e
farm owners asked the Littles to release their son and declared that their son
had nothing to do with the robbery. Eventually, the son was released, but Little
believed that he was the criminal. Th e last paragraph of her diary describes the
visit of the son with his parents to celebrate and thank the Littles for his release.
She describes the son as a ‘wretched looking, emaciated, red eyed, disfi gured
creature’.^10 Here, Alicia Little’s refl ections on the Chinese are signifi cant. Little’s
sympathy towards the Chinese can hardly be doubted. Th e diary fi nishes with
an open ending, leaving room for the readers to realize that ‘t[he] great Division
of the Human Race, called Chinese, consists not only of China-men but of real
men and women, with simple wants and wishes not aft er all so unlike our own’.^11
In a change of description, Little indulges in an unresolved narrative tension,
ending the diary with an ‘upbeat fl ourish’.^12 Th ough these ironies make her diary
diffi cult to understand, this is what makes Little’s refl ection on Chinese women
signifi cant within imperial feminist studies.
Scholars of imperial feminist studies have questioned the epistemolog y of
separation implicit in such race research.^13 Here, the relationship between the
Orient and the Occident that rests on a dichotomized self/other framework
obscures the subjectivities of identities internal to this framework. Such a frame-
work overwrites the interconnections of privileged race positions with other
sources of identity and power. Identities can be positioned in diff erent times
and spaces. Th e interrelations of space and identity occur in fl uid and dynamic
relations and representations.^14 Selves and others may be thought of as hybrid
and need to be located in obvious domains of diff erence, like race and gender.
Indeed, there is an ‘in between’ in these domains where we negotiate how selves
and others are represented.^15 Little moves into this ‘in between’ space, where
she struggles between self and other. Her travel account is central to her English
rural identity based on an ideal of nostalgia. But the emphasis on the rural idyll
distorts our reading of Little’s travel account. Th is leads us further away from the
inherent diversity in her text. In fact, dwelling with others allows her to discard
the gender norms that she has struggled with during her life in England. Th is not
only helps to explain the multiple ironies in Alicia Little’s diary but also frames
a diff erent discursive space for feminist writers. While China experiences critical
national and gender reform, Little fi nds diffi culties in upholding a stable subjec-
tivity for Chinese women. Her account displays the diffi culties of representing
rural China within the trope of European dominance and othering common to