Hand play 1 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck June 26

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• • • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu (Chinese: 賽珍珠; pinyin: Sài Zhēnzhū), was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U. S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces. Pearl Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia to Caroline Stulting (1857– 1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker. Her parents, Southern Presbyterian missionaries, traveled to China soon after their marriage on July 8, 1880, but returned to the United States for Pearl's birth. When Pearl was three months old, the family returned to China to be stationed first in Zhenjiang (then often known as Jingjiang or, in the Postal Romanization, Tsingkiang). Pearl was raised in a bilingual environment, tutored in English by her mother and in classical Chinese by a Mr. Kung. Chinese man in Zhenjiang, c. 1900 The Boxer Uprising greatly affected Pearl and family; their Chinese friends deserted them, and Western visitors decreased. In 1911, Pearl left China to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia, US, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1914 and a member of Kappa Delta Sorority. From 1914 to 1933, she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but her views later became highly controversial in the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy, leading to her resignation. 2

• • • In 1914, Pearl returned to China. She married an agricultural economist, John Lossing Buck (hereafter in this article Pearl Buck is referred to simply as 'Buck'), on May 13, 1917, and they moved to Suzhou, Anhui Province, a small town on the Huai River (not to be confused with the better-known Suzhou in Jiangsu Province). It is this region she described later in The Good Earth and Sons. From 1920 to 1933, the Bucks made their home in Nanking (Nanjing), on the campus of Nanjing University, where both had teaching positions. Buck taught English literature at the University of Nanjing and the Chinese National University. In 1920, the Bucks had a daughter, Carol, afflicted with phenylketonuria. In 1921, Buck's mother died and shortly afterward her father moved in. In 1924, they left China for John Buck's year of sabbatical and returned to the United States for a short time, during which (Pearl) Buck earned her Masters degree from Cornell University. In 1925, the Bucks adopted Janice (later surnamed Walsh). That autumn, they returned to China. The tragedies and dislocations that Buck suffered in the 1920 s reached a climax in March 1927, during the "Nanking Incident. " In a confused battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, Communist forces, and assorted warlords, several Westerners were murdered. Since her father Absalom was a missionary, the family decided to stay in Nanjing until the battle reached the city. When violence broke out, a poor Chinese family allowed them to hide in their hut while the family house was looted. The family spent a day terrified and in hiding, after which they were rescued by American gunboats. They traveled to Shanghai and then sailed to Japan, where they stayed for a year. They later moved back to Nanjing, though conditions remained dangerously unsettled. In 1934, they left China permanently. 3

• • • In 1935 the Bucks were divorced. Richard Walsh, president of the John Day Company and her publisher, became Pearl Buck's second husband. Walsh offered her advice and affection which, her biographer concludes, "helped make Pearl's prodigious activity possible. " The couple lived in Pennsylvania until his death in 1960. [7] During the Cultural Revolution Buck, as a preeminent American writer of Chinese peasant life, was denounced as an "American cultural imperialist. " Buck was "heartbroken" when Madame Mao and high-level Chinese officials prevented her from visiting China with Richard Nixon in 1972. [8] Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont and was interred in Green Hills Farm in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. She designed her own tombstone. The grave marker is inscribed with Chinese characters representing the name Pearl Sydenstricker 民國初年的鎮江苦力 中國現在的礦 4

• 29 April 1962 Dinner for the Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere. L-R: Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, Pearl Buck, President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, Robert Frost, guests. White House, East Room. Photograph by Robert Knudsen, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. 5

• • Peals Buck’s birthplace Buck was highly committed and passionate about a range of issues that were largely ignored by her generation; many of her life experiences and political views are described in her novels, short stories, fiction, children's stories, and the biographies of her parents entitled Fighting Angel (on Absalom) and The Exile (on Carrie). She wrote on a diverse variety of topics including woman's rights, Asian cultures, immigration, adoption, missionary work, and war. In 1949, outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race children unadoptable, Buck established Welcome House, Inc. , the first international, interracial adoption agency. In nearly five decades of work, Welcome House has placed over five thousand children. In 1964, to support children who were not eligible for adoption, Buck established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to "address poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries. " In 1965, she opened the Opportunity Center and Orphanage in South Korea, and later offices were opened in Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. When establishing Opportunity House, Buck said, "The purpose. . . is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children. " In the late 1960 s, Buck toured West Virginia to raise money to preserve her family farm in Hillsboro, WV. Today The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace is a historic house museum and cultural center. She hoped the house would "belong to everyone who cares to go there, " and serve as a "gateway to new thoughts and dreams and ways of life. " Long before it was considered fashionable or politically safe to do so, Buck challenged the American public on topics such as racism, sex discrimination and the plight of the thousands of babies born to Asian women left behind and unwanted wherever American soldiers were based in Asia. During her life Buck combined the multiple careers of wife, mother, author, editor and political activist. 6

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• • Contemporary reviewers were positive, and praised her "beautiful prose, " even though her "style is apt to degenerate into overrepetition and confusion. " Peter Conn, in his biography of Buck, argues that despite the accolades awarded to her, Buck's contribution to literature has been mostly forgotten or deliberately ignored by America's cultural gatekeepers. Kang Liao argues that Buck played a "pioneering role in demythologizing China and the Chinese people in the American mind. "Phyllis Bentley, in an overview of her work published in 1935, was altogether impressed: "But we may say at least that for the interest of her chosen material, the sustained high level of her technical skill, and the frequent universality of her conceptions, Mrs. Buck is entitled to take rank as a considerable artist. To read her novels is to gain not merely knowledge of China but wisdom about life. " These works aroused considerable popular sympathy for China, and helped foment poor relations with Japan. Anchee Min, author of a fictionalized life of Pearl Buck, broke down upon reading Buck's work, because she had portrayed the Chinese peasants "with such love, affection and humanity". " Buck was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 5¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. [citation needed] In 1999 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project. (賽珍珠故居) Buck's former residence at Nanjing University is now the Nanjing University Science and Technology Industry Group Building along the West Wall of the university's north campus. U. S. President George H. W. Bush toured the Pearl S. Buck House in October 1998. He expressed that he, like millions of other Americans, had gained an appreciation for the Chinese through Buck's writing. 10

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• Imperial woman is one of the mastery works of Pearl S. Buck. She once again captivates the audience with intriguing adventure and exploration of the ancient China through a single woman. Imperial Woman is like the title, fictionalized autobiography of Ci-Xi or Tz’U His, the empress of the wade. Giles. The story starts off with Ci-Xi going in to the palace as a concubine of the Xian. Feng Emperor of Great China. Even at an early age of 17 years old, she was manipulative, dominating, and perhaps even wicked. Tzu His was born into one of the poor noble ranks in the imperial dynasty. According to the custom, at the age of the seventeen, she moved to the Forbidden City, and became one of the hundreds of concubines. But her unique and dominating power and undeniable beauty quickly gets her up to the consort of the empress. On the death bed of Xian Fend Emperor, she supposedly became a head o the Qing Dynasty in 1908. She was feared in many courts, but adored by the peasants. Buck’s detailed knowledge of the self-involved, and infamous last empress of china, and seeming realistic story of china’s struggle for freedom and democracy takes the readers to inescapable fascination. 18

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• Pearl Buck lived in China for many years and spoke the language so I am happy to accept the authenticity of her writing. The Good Earth tells the story of Wang Lung - a hardworking peasant farmer with ambitions to improve his life. O-lan is a plain servant girl (effectively a slave) in the house of the local landowner. Wang Lung takes her as a wife having said that he does not want a beautiful woman but one that is strong and willing to work and bear him sons. Love is not an expectation. Although Wang Lung and his wife work hard other things conspire against him and his life is a continual struggle against poverty and destitution. Buck writes in a very simple and lucid way – which somehow makes the issues that she raises even more shocking. The story is interwoven with infanticide, murder, drug-taking, prostitution, greed and betrayal. But throughout it all Wang Lung is convinced that it is the land which will offer them salvation. For much of the narrative Wang Lung and many of the other characters are far from flawless – but the author doesn’t judge them. Instead she relates their actions and attitudes and leaves the rest to the reader. It is not made absolutely clear when the book was supposed to be set. Slavery was abolished in 1910 so it is probably supposed to be set about that time. By 1912 the Republic of China had been created although there were many internal factions leading to the era of the warlords. The Good Earth was first published in 1931 – so the story was written without knowing the massive upheavals that were to occur in China a few years in the future. But already the country was in a state of flux with the mention of distant wars and gangs of local robbers. By Wynne 23

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Pearl S. Buck House in Perkasie PA 26

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Dragon Seed (Pearl S. Buck) (1944) 33

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An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls… even satinlined, diamond-studded walls… without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell. 37

李常生 Eddie Lee Taipei 12/8/2011 Most of the photos were taken from internet leechangsheng 5555@gmail. com 林語堂在台北陽明山上的故居 40