Pearl of China by Anchee Min

 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973) was an American writer and novelist. As a daughter of missionaries, she spent most of her life before 1937 in China. She received Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.” She was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

The author wished to present her story from a Chinese perspective, as her fellow Chinese saw her. In order to do this, she presented Pear’s story through her relationships with her actual Chinese friends. The author “combined a number of Pear’s actual friends from different phases of her life to create the character of Willow.”

The story starts in the last days of the 19th century, in a small town of Chin-kiang in southern China.

Willow is the only child of a destitute father. They steal to survive.

Pearl is a daughter of Christian missionaries. 

The two girls meet, when Willow steals Absalom’s (Pearl’s father) wallet and Pearl chases Willow to reclaim the wallet. And that’s not the only time Pearl catches Willow stealing. But sometimes it takes only one event to turn an ‘enemy acquaintance’ into a ‘caring friendship’; when one in need is helped by the other.

Absalom’s first attempts at converting people are not successful. In his first efforts to convert Willow’s father, he loses the battle. “How can Jesus protect others when he couldn’t even protect himself? (…) Listen, foreigner, my suggestions might help you. Put clothes on Jesus and give him a weapon. Look at our god of war, Guan-gong. He wears a general’s robe made of heavy metal, and he carries a powerful sword.” The people pay no attention to the missionary. They laugh at him. They think of him as a harmless fool.

Then it takes only one Chinese person to change the mission’s direction. Willow’s father points, “Look, we have fed our gods and they are fat and happy. But what have they done for us?”

When Willow is 14, she is engaged to be married to a man twice her age and she has no say in the decision. 

Pearl is world away in Shanghai enrolled in a missionary middle school.

Five years later, after the Boxer Rebellion, the girls reunite for a short time and then Pearl moves to the States where she continues her education, including writing.

When Pearl returns to China, she finds comfort in writing.

In 1930s, the Nationalist government is fighting against Communism, which is seen as a foreign idea. Thus the church is seen as hiding place for Communists. Westerners start evacuating. It is no longer safe for Pearl to remain in China.

This beautifully captivating story is set against turbulent times of Chinese history, first the Boxer Rebellion, then the Civil War and Cultural Revolution.

The author skillfully presents the first failed attempts of Absalom’s conversions with sharp-tongue descriptions.

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