I read and enjoyed The Good Earth twice but Pearl S. Buck was a colonizer and a missionary. The PRC would not allow her to visit China. I think her work has sympathy for Chinese people—until they actually start to take control of their lives. Colonizers are also notably absent from The Good Earth. Spoiler alert but the story is basically: life sucks for poor Chinese people, especially women, until they get incredibly rich and lucky, at which point they turn into the oppressors. There is no alternative or escape from this.
I strongly recommend From Wonso Pond as well / instead. It’s on libgen.
I don't think she was saying that this is how life should be. She was saying this is what life was back then, in pre-revolutionary (1919 revolution, not 1949) China.
Colonizers are also notably absent from The Good Earth.
Wang Lung is in the middle of nowhere in rural Anhui. He meets a grand total of two foreigners in the whole book, and one is a Jesus freak and Buck ridicules his ridiculous proselytizing.
Read Dragon Seed if you want an account about how westerners hung China out to dry while they concentrated their efforts on saving Jewish people in Europe.
I read and enjoyed The Good Earth twice but Pearl S. Buck was a colonizer and a missionary. The PRC would not allow her to visit China. I think her work has sympathy for Chinese people—until they actually start to take control of their lives. Colonizers are also notably absent from The Good Earth. Spoiler alert but the story is basically: life sucks for poor Chinese people, especially women, until they get incredibly rich and lucky, at which point they turn into the oppressors. There is no alternative or escape from this.
I strongly recommend From Wonso Pond as well / instead. It’s on libgen.
I don't think she was saying that this is how life should be. She was saying this is what life was back then, in pre-revolutionary (1919 revolution, not 1949) China.
Wang Lung is in the middle of nowhere in rural Anhui. He meets a grand total of two foreigners in the whole book, and one is a Jesus freak and Buck ridicules his ridiculous proselytizing.
Read Dragon Seed if you want an account about how westerners hung China out to dry while they concentrated their efforts on saving Jewish people in Europe.