Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Bridge Across the Pacific

Pearl S. Buck’s portrayal of Chinese peasants was the first literary representation, in China as well as in America, of the majority of the Chinese population. Her work changed the image of the Chinese people in the American mind-ultimately facilitating the 1943 repeal of the 61-year-old Chinese Exclusion Act and arousing Americans’ support of the Chinese resistance against the Japanese aggression in World War II. From a multicultural point of view, Chinese scholar Kang Liao analyzes Buck’s phenomenal success and the ensuing neglect of her works by American critics. Liao’s insights into Buck’s function as one of the few writers from an age of Eurocentrism who shed light on a new age of multiculturalism will be of interest to both students and scholars interested in race, class, and gender issues.