The Good Earth By Pearl S. Buck

Author Background Buck was daughter of Christian missionaries Taken to China as an infant Lived in China most of her first 40 years Pearl’s Chinese governess told her many Chinese tales

Buck Family

Author Background (cont.) 1909-As a teen, Pearl attended school in Shanghai She volunteered at Door of Hope (shelter for Chinese slave girls and prostitutes) She married John Buck in 1917/met him in China They lived first few years in a village full of impoverished farmers (Anwhei)—this became the setting of The Good Earth

Author Background (cont.) Buck had one daughter, Carol— developmentally disabled Pearl could not have any more children (later divorced John Buck) Buck went back to U.S. to be closer to Carol (in a U.S. school)

Novel Information 1931—novel appeared/Americans knew almost nothing about China Main achievement—the novel “humanized” Asians/ were not portrayed as stereotypical Orientals (drug addicts, cruel, dishonest, backward, decadent)

Novel Information Novel won Pulitzer Prize Pearl S. Buck 1 st woman to win Nobel Prize for Literature =========  First edition copy of The Good Earth

Film The Good Earth Controversial—main roles NOT portrayed by Asian actors Movie rights commanded a record price at that time ($1 million) Luise Rainer won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of O-lan

Pearl S. Buck’s Humanitarian Work She was dismayed by sexual caste system and the practiced that evolved from this – Infanticide – Foot binding – Education – Possession of concubines

Pearl S. Buck’s Humanitarian Work She spoke out against internment camps in U.S. Founded Welcome House, the first international interracial adoption agency

Foot Binding “Foot binding was an old Chinese custom in which young girls' feet were tightly bound to restrict and alter their growth. Although it was banned nearly a century ago by the Chinese government and is now seen as barbaric, the practice took years to die out, and a few of its victims -- most far older than can still be found today”.

Foot Binding--Origins (cont.) “Foot binding is thought to have originated in imperial China in the 10th or 11th century, probably as a fashionable practice among wealthy women. Although its first adherents used it as a status symbol to indicate their high social rank, foot binding gradually spread throughout the culture. By the 12th century, even the poorest families practiced it”.

Foot Binding—The Procedure When a girl was about three years of age, most of her toes would be fractured and her feet bound tightly with linen strips to impede their growth. The ideal was to create a 3-inch "lotus foot" by limiting growth to just a few inches. The binding forced a girl's toes down toward the soles of her feet to form a concave shape. The practice became so pervasive that a woman whose feet had not been bound would have difficulty finding a husband; most families demanded a woman with tiny feet when selecting a wife for their son.

Foot Binding—Physical Effects “The physical consequences of this process extended far beyond the feet themselves. Women with bound feet had difficulty walking, squatting and working in the fields. A 1997 study by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco found that women ages 80 and older with bound feet were more likely to have fallen in the previous year and to need assistance in rising from a sitting position. They also had lower bone density in the hip and spine than women with normal feet, increasing their risk of debilitating fractures”.

Foot Binding--Ban Foot binding was banned in the early 20 th century Practice for years in secret/families fearful their daughters would not find husbands