Time and Place: Temporality and Diaspora in Jia Qing Wilson-Yang’s Small Beauty

This essay explores the nature of diasporic identities and their relationship to time in Jia Qing Wilson-Yang’s Small Beauty (2016). Through the lens of Benzi Zhang’s “Identity in Diaspora and Diaspora in Writing: The Poetics of Cultural Transrelation,” I outline the ways in which the novel’s main character, Mei, a mixed-race transwoman living in Canada, crosses the borders of time in order to rediscover the buried pieces of her personal identity. While place is naturally the focus in conversations about diaspora, time is an equally important element to consider. Consequently, I argue that Small Beauty illustrates the significant, but often forgotten, role of time in the formation of personal identities, with particular attention given to diasporans and members of the queer community. I additionally examine the novel’s nonlinear narrative style as its own breaching of temporal borders, which imitates Mei’s interactions with time amid her self-realization. Ultimately, I assert that reading Small Beauty in this way facilitates a better understanding of one facet of identity formation for diasporans, while also expanding scholarly conversation on Wilson-Yang’s valuable work.