Pearl Buck in China
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and finances, 64–65, 144
founder of Kuling, 25, 85
health, 58, 156
his Chinese followers, 46–47, 143, 144
his ideal of womanhood, 40
his patent sermon, 49
in Korea, 162, 165
Lin Meng’s martyrdom, 30
lives in PB’s house in Nanjing (1920s), 141–42, 143
marriage to Carie, 6, 7, 11, 28, 39, 41, 122, 144
and Mr. Ma, 31, 47, 56, 143, 198
neglect of his children, 21, 45, 121, 145, 241
New Testament translation, 22, 43, 44, 47, 65, 227
other missionaries’ efforts to control him, 45, 142–43
and PB’s education, 64, 68, 75
PB’s hatred of, 45, 86
PB’s likeness to and affection for, 42, 44, 115, 144–45, 226–27
personality, 10, 11, 39, 40–41, 45, 75, 76, 80, 141–43, 145–46, 241
and publication of The Good Earth, 192
relationship with PB, 49, 65–66, 144–45, 226–27
reluctant return to U.S. (1910), 68–69, 70
and Rev. James Graham, 12, 210–11
rivalry with one-eyed Baptist, 44
a Southern Presbyterian missionary, 2, 6–7, 11–12, 15–16
in Tsingkiangpu, 7
two-year sabbatical (1890–91), 11–12
on wen-li, 136
writes Our Life and Work in China, 145
Sydenstricker, Andrew (PB’s grandfather), 39, 40, 41
Sydenstricker, Arthur (PB’s brother), 1, 7, 10, 25, 145
Sydenstricker, Caroline (Carie; née Stulting; PB’s mother), 71
adopts a Chinese daughter, 56, 266n56
arrival in Shanghai (1880), 6–7
birth of Pearl, 10, 11
builds a house to her own design, 88–89
buried at Niupipo, 119
childhood in West Virginia, 6
in the Chinese Revolution, 78
death, 118–19
deaths of four of her children, 10, 15, 25–27
education after mother’s death, 37
family background, 6
famine relief, 62
hates the Yangtse, 24
health, 13–14, 15, 25–28, 79–81, 85–86, 116
as home-maker, 13, 116
informal clinics for women, 8, 81
in Kuling, 58–59, 85, 87, 88–89, 118
marital friction, 15, 17–18, 23, 28, 63–65, 68, 86–87, 120–22
marriage to Absalom, 6, 7, 11, 28, 39, 41, 122, 144
and move to Hsuchien, 15
and PB’s education, 64, 66, 68
personality, 35–36, 63, 64, 75, 86–87, 115, 226, 228
a proto-feminist, 18, 64
relationship with PB, 63, 75, 86, 120, 121–22, 123
a Southern Presbyterian missionary, 2, 6–7, 11
as a storyteller, 6–8, 30, 36
a teacher, 13, 50, 60
Sydenstricker, Clyde Hermanus (PB’s brother), 145
birth, 16
childhood, 21
death from diphtheria, 25–26
health, 17
Sydenstricker, Edgar (PB’s brother), 7, 63, 187, 189–90
appearance, 74
breakup of first marriage, 75–76, 123, 212
at the Buck farm, 167
Carie worries about him, 16
Director of Population Studies, Millbank Memorial Fund, New York, 189–90
education, 1, 13, 20, 34, 38, 64
ill-health, 220
newspaper editor in Lynchburg, 70
personality, 74
premature death, 223
relationship with PB, 1, 74–76, 151, 209, 220
second marriage, 212, 220
teaches PB to walk, 1
visits Green Hills Farm, 223
Sydenstricker, Edith (PB’s sister), 1, 7, 10, 25, 145
Sydenstricker, Frances (née Feronica Kauffman; PB’s grandmother), 39–40
Sydenstricker, Frank (PB’s uncle), 40
Sydenstricker, Hiram (PB’s uncle), 40
Sydenstricker, Maude (PB’s sister), 1, 10, 25, 26–27, 145, 263n27
Sydenstricker, Philip (PB’s American ancestor), 221
Sydenstricker, Phyllis (PB’s sister-inlaw), 212, 223
Sydenstricker, Rev. David (PB’s uncle), 41
Sydenstricker family, 39, 168, 264n39
Tagore, Rabindranath, 278n173
Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), 4–5
Tattler (student magazine), 75
Tawney, R. H.: Land and Labour in China, 189
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 54
Thailand, PB and Walsh in, 215
Thomson, James C., 133, 248, 252
Thomson, Margaret, 126, 131–32, 133, 137, 159, 169, 188, 192, 214, 248
Thomson family, 146, 159, 162, 273n132
Thoreau, Henry, 49
Tibet, Lossing’s field trip to, 215
Time magazine, 244
Timperley, H. J., 216
Tolstoy, Count Leo, 90
trans-Siberian railway, 69
Trescott, Paul B., 191, 274n137, 280n191, 283n214
Trotsky, Leon, 231
T’sai Yun (Precious Cloud, PB’s Chinese sister), 56, 266n56
Tsingkiangpu, 20, 71, 121, 251
Absalom sets up his campaign headquarters, 7
Absalom’s group of Chinese followers, 46–47
Carie’s informal clinics for women, 8
opposition to Abasalom in the mission group, 12, 19–20
Sydenstricker family flees to from Hsuchien, 18, 22
the Sydenstricker house described, 13
Tsui, R. H., 215
Tsuyung, Yunnan province, 84
Twain, Mark, 3
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 54
Tom Sawyer, 54
Tz’u Hsi (Cixi), Empress Dowager, 51–52, 53, 59, 252
United States:
Clyde educated in, 1, 20
and PB’s analysis of mission practice, 49
PB’s first articles published in, 129
PB stigmatized as a suspected Communist, 230
right-wing intolerance, 244
Sydenstrickers on furlough (1890), 11; (1901), 32; (1910), 69–70; (1918), 116
Unzen, Japan, 162, 164
U.S. Department of Agriculture, 95, 181
U.S. Farm Bureau, 165
U.S. Treasury, 220
Vancouver, 219
Vermont, 245, 249–50, 252–53
Victoria, Queen, 59
Vietnam, PB and Walsh in, 215
Vineland Training School, New Jersey, 182, 202, 209, 219–20, 245
Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, 202–3
Walsh, Janice, see Buck, Janice Walsh, Natalie, 209, 222, 223, 247, 251
Walsh, Richard:
accepts PB’s first novel, 187
adoption of six children, 222, 245
advises PB to go into hiding, 210
appearance, 207–8, 218
attracted to PB, 212
avoids liquidation of his company, 219
death, 243–44
divorce from first wife, 220–21
editor of Asia magazine, 215–16
edits PB’s books heavily, 237
health, 243, 244–45, 246
long courtship of PB, 218
marriage to PB, 218, 221, 238, 246, 249
and PB’s second book, 188
personality, 188, 208, 225–26, 243–44
portrayed by PB in The Long Love, 193
president of John Day, 187
and success of The Good Earth, 192–93
travels with PB across Asia, 215
works closely with PB, 208–9
Walsh, Ruby, 209, 212, 220
Wang, Su-i, 61, 63
Wang Amah, 7, 23, 24, 50, 60, 222
appearance, 4
bound feet, 4, 5
death, 79
health, 57
looks a
fter Clyde, 16–17
and PB’s clothes, 14
and PB’s happy childhood, 13, 14
PB’s nurse, 4
personality, 4
and Taiping Rebellion, 4–5
tales of demons and spirits, 4
Wang the farmer, (Lossing’s star pupil), 101
Warren, George, 270n101
Warsaw, Sydenstricker family in, 69
Washington and Lee college, Lexington, Kentucky, 38, 274n141
Wei, Dottie, 61, 63
Welcome House Adoption Agency, 240–41, 247, 250, 251
Wellesley College, Massachusetts, 68
wen-li (ancient classical written Chinese language), 50, 90, 136–37
Westernization, 52
Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 210
West Virginia, 6, 26, 32, 36, 38, 42, 71, 79, 98
White, Emma Locke (née Edmunds), 76–77, 84, 111, 130, 137, 139, 146, 190, 224
White Snake, The (Zhao Quingge), 4, 53
Williams, Dr. J., 157, 159, 178
Williams, Lillian, 156, 157
Wiltsie, Dr. James, 95, 109, 113, 114, 116
Wiltsie, Mrs., 109, 113, 116
Woman’s Home Companion, 226, 237
women’s rights, 8, 64, 229
World War I, 79, 85, 116, 135
World War II, 229, 237–38
Wu, Madame, 105–6, 107, 245
Wu family, 107
Wuhan, Hubei province, 154
Wuhu, Anhui, 186
xenophobia, 29
Xu Zhimo:
appearance, 173
background, 174
the “Chinese Shelley,” 173–74
early death, 175
and The Good Earth, 188
lectures at Southeastern University, 175
literary career, 174
meets PB, 173
relationship with PB, 174–75, 278n175
Yangtse River, 1, 19, 24, 28, 32, 34, 65, 69, 128, 154, 197–98
Yangzhou, 4–5
Yaukey, Grace Caroline (née Sydenstricker; PB’s sister):
on bandit attacks in Nanxuzhou, 102
birth, 26
in the Chinese Revolution, 78
on the deaths of Arthur and Edith, 10
disabled third child, 220
education, 60, 79, 85, 116
The Exile’s Daughter, 18, 157, 248
after the famine, 63
on her father, 19–20, 80, 143, 144–45
and her father’s death, 198
and her mother’s death, 118–19
and her mother’s illness, 80–81
in Japan, 162, 163
last child of the Sydenstrickers, 28
looks after Carol, 118
marriage, 126, 154
in Paris, 69
on PB’s appearance, 42
and PB’s separation from Carol, 183, 190
personality, 63
visits Green Hills Farm, 223
as a writer, 8, 220
Yaukey, Jesse, 155, 223
Yaukey, Richard, 158
Yaukey family, 155, 164, 188
Yellow River, 12, 29, 32
Yokohama, Japan, 218
Yueyang, Hunan, 154
YWCA conference (Bryn Mawr, 1913), 73–74
Zhao Jiabi, 186
Zhao Yanan, 189
Zhenjiang, 71, 72, 89
Absalom as the only white man in the region (1900), 30–31
Absalom returns to (1896), 20
Absalom sent to (1886–7), 20
British Club, 38
Carie’s death in, 118–19
cholera in, 57
described, 20, 21, 22–24, 26, 52, 111
Famine Relief Committee, 62
home of the Sydenstrickers, 3, 20–23, 28–29, 178, 221, 268n79
local accent, 98
Methodist Girls’ School, 61, 62, 63
migrant workers in, 52
Mission meetings, 42–44
PB returns to (1914), 80–81
Presbyterian High School for Boys, 81, 82–83
refugees, 61
stone tablet in Absalom’s honor, 198
Zhou Enlai, 251
1 Pearl’s parents, Caroline (Carie) Stulting and Absalom Sydenstricker, at the time of their marriage and departure for China in 1880.
2 Absalom and Carie with their three surviving children—thirteen-year-old Edgar, two-year-old Pearl, and the new baby, Clyde—after their flight to Shanghai in 1895.
3 The Sydenstricker family reunited after the terrorist uprising of 1900: Pearl, Absalom, and Carie with her seventh and last baby, Grace, presided over by Wang Amah.
4 Pearl, aged nine, on her first visit to America in 1901: “slender face, broad forehead, pointed chin, straight, stubborn mouth, narrow nose, and gray-green eyes beneath black brows that contrasted with the near-fair hair.”
5 A traveler approaching the thousand steps cut into the cliff on the road to Kuling, China’s first mountain resort, founded by Pearl’s father and others as a life-saving station.
6 The scholar, Mr. Kung (Kong), who taught Pearl to write calligraphy and read Confucius: a posthumous portrait by Li Weicheng, president of the National Painting Academy of Zhenjiang.
7 Absalom Sydenstricker in the robes of a Chinese scholar. Six feet tall, red-haired, red-skinned, and blue-eyed with a beaky nose, his appearance astounded and often terrified village people who had never seen a foreigner before.
8 Carie, Grace, and Pearl Sydenstricker in 1910, the year Pearl returned to the United States, entered college, and set about remaking herself for the first time as an American.
9 Pearl as president of her class, standing surrounded by the other girls at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1913.
10 Pearl and John Lossing Buck on their wedding day, May 30, 1917, in the Sydenstrickers’ garden with her parents (far left), her sister, Grace (center right), and colleagues from the Zhenjiang and Nanxuzhou mission stations.
11 Lu Sadze (with her baby and absconding husband): the village woman who saved the lives of the Buck family by hiding them in this hut in Nanjing in 1927.
12 Xu Zhimo, the Chinese Shelley, a charismatic role model for writers of his generation until his early death in 1930.
13 Xu Zhimo (second from right in front row) when Pearl first met him in May 1924, photographed with a group of young Western-educated intellectuals at Nanjing’s Southeastern University during the visit of Rabindranath Tagore, who sits behind Xu with the distinguished Confucian scholar Gu Hongming.
14 Wang Lung the farmer: this photograph was picked by Pearl for reproduction inAsia (vol. 28, no. 9, Sept. 1928), because she said the man in it looked just like the hero of The Good Earth.
15 Richard Walsh, who publishedThe Good Earth,in China in 1934: “there he was, lean, brown, and handsome, and smoking his old briar pipe.”
16 Richard and Pearl with the first two of their six adopted children at home in the garden of Green Hills Farm, Pennsylvania.
17 An MGM film crew shootingThe Good Earth on location near Shanghai in Pearl’s final weeks in China in 1934 (from the Shanghai magazine Liangyou,May 13, 1934). The footage was destroyed by government officials before it left the country, and Pearl herself never saw China again.
18 Pearl in 1938 when she won the Nobel Prize for literature: “Her beautiful gray-green eyes were as clear as jade, frank, and sparkling… her uneven mouth was cut like a gash in her expressive face. She was attractive, friendly, natural, easy to be with, but I had a feeling she had never been young.”
19 Pearl as a widow in her seventies, with her dancing instructor, Ted Harris. She said he had the looks of a Greek god together with the glamour of President Kennedy. She set up a lavishly funded foundation with Harris at its head until public scandal forced his resignation, but he remained at Pearl’s side as her closest companion to the end of her life.
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