Renewing the bridge between East and West
By Pan Jianfeng (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-10-19 11:18

Oprah Winfrey, influential and famous US talk show host, film star and producer, recently chose the "The Good Earth" by Nobel-winning novelist Pearl S. Buck's for her latest book club presentation.

The Pearl S. Buck phenomenon, used to be controversial and rejected by both the Chinese and American literary worlds, returns into the spotlight in recent years as a friendly cultural bridge between the East and the West.

"We are having a potential revival of interest in Pearl Buck. Hopefully it's because of the understanding of Pearl Buck being a bridge between China and the West," noted Edgar Walsh, a kind middle-aged man who is always smiling behind his big glasses. He is in China for the second time to renew the bridge between the East and the West his mother has built through his own efforts to promote further understanding.

Edgar Walsh  is in China for the second time to renew the bridge between the East and the West. [chinadaily.com.cn]

Pearl Buck, who came to China when she was only three months old, has done a significant job in introducing China to the world through a collection of her books such as "The Good Earth".

"The Good Earth", a story following the life of a Chinese peasant first published in 1931, became the best seller of both 1931 and 1932. It would go on to win the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1935 Howells Medal. Three years later, the book won the 1938 Nobel Prize in literature, making Pearl the first American woman to win the award. It also was made into a major film of the same name in 1937, earning 5 Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

To date the book has undergone more than 800,000 reprints with 600,000 already in bookstores nationwide, astonishing for a book over 70 years old. These numbers will likely rise as after decades of neglect, interest in Pearl Buck has resurfaced. Through a new book he is working on, besides the mother's legacy, the son will try to show the world a different China.

Edgar Walsh first came to China two years ago to attend the celebration of Pearl Buck's 110th birthday anniversary in the city of Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu Province, where Pearl Buck was brought up and educated by a Chinese tutor.

Edgar is also the manager of the Pearl Buck Family Trust that manages the literary properties Pearl Buck left when she died. Now the son is continuing his mother's tireless efforts to promote the mutual understanding between the east and west. This time he is in China to gather material for his book that will depict Pearl Buck's and her parents' lives in China, in order to show China as it was, and China as it is.

"This is something Americans need to know. What I am going to write about is a small history of what China was, what happened to China that enabled my grandfather to come, and how China evolved during his fifty years there. It's not a lengthy, scholarly book of many pages, but rather very short with historical photographs, that is very readable and appealing for the public."

Edgar first learned about China from his mother's books describing the rural China. But what he has seen in Jiangsu Province has fascinated him. "The public face is the 21st century. It's a new China; it's not my mother's China. It's a new world."

He did not expect the total modernization of life in China. "It's such a dynamic culture. I have seen an economic engine in full speed."

Pearl Buck's father arrived at China's Beijing railway station from Moscow in 1900. But when Edgar traveled back to the old railway station again more than 100 years later trying to imagine what the ten-year-old Pearl Buck must had felt about the Beijing city gate and the city wall, he found the surroundings having changed dramatically. Says Edgar, "I am a third generation of this family relating to China. It's only two generations, but in this span changes and achievements in China have been unimaginable."

Besides the book, Edgar is also trying to make Pearl Buck's works into movies. Peony, a love story set in a Jewish committee in Kaifeng city of Central China's Henan Province, is in the primary stage of being made into a film with Hollywood's David Kirschner as the potential producer. Previously, another Buck work "Pavilion of Women" was made into a film by the Chinese producer, director and actress Luo Yan.

Chinese was Pearl Buck's native language as she first came to China when she was only three-months old and spent nearly 40 years in the mysterious and ancient Asian country. These years provided her the material for her books. As a Nobel Prize winner, she is best known for her novels about China. But besides her tremendous literary success, Buck is also known for her humanitarian works.

"Pearl Buck was the first to initiate the idea of interracial adoption; it's one of her legacies. It goes so far beyond her writing. I have been very fortunate in my life," said Edgar. Just like her books, Pearl Buck's persistent efforts in children care and philanthropy have profoundly influenced the life of Edgar and many other people worldwide.

The Welcome House, the first international adoption organization that was founded by Pearl Buck in 1949, highlights Buck's humanitarian work and changes the lives of many people. Pearl Buck will always be of the good earth.

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