Pearl of China: A Novel is a 2010 novel by Anchee Min, published by Bloomsbury.
The fictional narrative involves Pearl Buck becoming friends with a Chinese girl named Willow Yee. The two experience historical events. The climax of the novel involves Jiang Qing asking Willow to criticize Buck, and Willow chooses not to. [1]
MPR News described the work as being "deeply personal" to Min. [2]
Publishers Weekly described Willow as "fiercely loyal". [1]
Min, while she was a student at Shanghai Middle School, was told, in 1971, by the school administration to criticize Pearl Buck, despite Min not knowing anything about Buck and being unable to read translations of Buck's work; the authorities deemed Buck's works to be too dangerous to read. According to Min, it was a plot by Jiang Qing to prevent Buck from having proximity to President of the United States Richard Nixon and Chinese Paramount Leader Mao Zedong. Min re-examined her feelings about Buck, when, while in Chicago in a book signing, a person who read one or more of Min's works described Buck giving her positive feelings about the Chinese people. Min decided to read The Good Earth while flying on an aircraft and felt emotional resonance after reading it. [3]
Min traveled to Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, where Buck once lived, to do research. According to her, the residents kept mum until people told her to visit a pastor who told her second-hand stories about Buck; the pastor himself did not know Buck. The pastor was on the verge of death when he met Min. [3]
Jan Stuart of The New York Times argued that the initial sections read well, but criticized "wide-eyed story telling" and the "melodramatic reversals of fortune and 11th-hour rescues" that occur after the Boxer Rebellion begins in the novel. [4] Stuart compared sequences in this novel to those in the The Perils of Pauline [ disambiguation needed ] series. [4]
Publishers Weekly stated that some sections seem like a "treatment", and that the work "is curiously low-key". [1]
Kirkus Reviews criticized the work as being a "flat, hagiographic narrative"; in particular the review criticized the use of Willow, stating that the character's purpose seems to be narrating Buck's journey and that Willow "isn’t fleshed out". [5] According to Kirkus, the work "loses steam" after the Boxer Rebellion occurs. [5]
Jiang Qing, also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping (藍蘋) during her acting career, and was known by many other names. Jiang was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the Gang of Four.
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
Anchee Min is a Chinese-American author who lives in San Francisco and Shanghai. Min has published two memoirs, Red Azalea and The Cooked Seed: A Memoir, and six historical novels. Her fiction emphasizes strong female characters, such as Jiang Qing, the wife of chairman Mao Zedong, and Empress Dowager Cixi, the last ruling empress of China.
Katherine (ISBN 1-57322-005-1) is the first novel by Anchee Min. It was published by Riverhead Books in 1995.
Zhang Qing is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Featherless Arrow", he ranks 16th among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the first third of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
Becoming Madame Mao is a historical novel by Anchee Min detailing the life of Jiang Qing. She became Madame Mao after her marriage to Mao Zedong. In this story Min tries to cast a sympathetic light on one of the most controversial political figures in the People's Republic of China.
Shi Yong is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Stone General", he ranks 99th among the 108 Stars of Destiny and 63rd among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
Song Qing is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Iron Fan", he ranks 76th among the 108 Stars of Destiny and 40th among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
Sun Erniang is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Female Yaksha", she ranks 103rd among the 108 Stars of Destiny and 67th among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
Red Azalea is a memoir of Chinese American writer Anchee Min. It was written during the first eight years she spent in the United States, from 1984 to 1992, and tells the story of her personal experience during the Cultural Revolution.
Zhang Qing is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Gardener", he ranks 102nd among the 108 Stars of Destiny and 66th among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
Shi En is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Golden Eyed Tiger Cub", he ranks 85th among the 108 Stars of Destiny and 49th among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
The Qing River is a right (southern) tributary of the Yangtze River in Hubei province of south-central China.
Empress Orchid (2004) is a novel by Anchee Min which was first published in Great Britain in 2004. It is written in first person and is a sympathetic account of the life of Empress Dowager Cixi - from her humble beginnings to her rise as the Empress Dowager.
Denial is a mystery novel written by Stuart M. Kaminsky, a Grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America. It is a Lew Fonesca mystery and was published June 1, 2005.
Kristin F. Cast is a Nigerian American author of young adult books and graphic novels, best known for the House of Night series and Sisters of Salem series, written with her mother, P.C. Cast.
Dragon Pearl is a middle grade novel written by Yoon Ha Lee and published on January 15, 2019, by Disney Hyperion under their "Rick Riordan Presents" publishing imprint. The book is a mix of Korean mythology and science fiction as the main character travels the galaxy. A short story by Lee about the characters in the book was featured in the anthology book The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities.
The 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American author Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." Buck was the first female American to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the third American recipient following Eugene O'Neill in 1936 and Sinclair Lewis in 1930. She was also the fourth woman to receive the prize.
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution is a 2022 novel of speculative fiction by R. F. Kuang. It debuted at the first spot on The New York Times Best Seller list, and won Blackwell's Books of the Year for Fiction in 2022 and the 2022 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them.
The Cooked Seed: A Memoir is a memoir by Anchee Min, published in 2013. It describes her initial years in the United States, when she attended university and learned English as a second language.