By the 1960s, she was considered an enemy of China and a symbol of American cultural imperialism. In the 1930s, Buck was just as popular there as she was in the United States, but after the Communist revolution in the 1940s, her books were banned. That wasn't a problem at the time, but it's pretty clear now that was more than a little racist.
Even though it wasn't her fault, the movie adaptation of The Good Earth used white actors in yellowface for all of the main roles. That appealed to-you guessed it-normal, everyday Americans.īefore you start thinking that Buck was a goody-two-shoes, there was some controversy.
Instead of choosing intellectuals or upper-class Chinese as her subjects, Buck chose normal, everyday people who did normal, everyday things. The United States would be allied with Chinese forces against the Japanese, and the novel helped to humanize Chinese people for American audiences. The novel also appeared shortly before the beginning of World War II. America was in the middle of the Great Depression, so Americans saw themselves reflected in Wang Lung's suffering. Timing was everything for the book's popularity. Plus, it was made into a $2.8 million movie, which was a huge deal at the time. It also won the Pulitzer Prize (and nearly every other prize that it could win), and helped Buck become the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize. It was the best-selling novel in 19, and it was translated into more than 30 languages. He is tempted over and over again by the vices of wealth, but he always comes back to his roots and to the land. Wang Lung is a farmer who tries hard, even through bad times, and eventually makes it rich. Buck's best-selling novel, has a pretty simple story. And sure, he makes it to the city and gets rich, but this is no happy ending. Except, you know, that Wang Lung is Chinese.
The poor, small-town boy makes it to the big city and comes back rich.
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