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Pearl S. Buck deeply explored the Chinese peasant images because of her personal experiences in China during the 20th century. Pearl had a close friend who was her Chinese nurse, Wang amah. Wang told her a lot of popular tales and myths (Zhang Wei, 2013:11). Therefore, she could speak English and Chinese when she was only four. She usually studied English literatures in the morning and then was taught Chinese by Chinese teachers. During that period, China was a nation of enduring impoverishment and longstanding debility. Buck found that there were not only evils and injustice in Chinese culture, but also plight in China due to the western imperialism. During her life in China, Pearl persisted in paying particular attention to the plight of the oppressed and the poor Chinese people. After she got married in China, she moved to poor remote area with her husband. She experienced the peasants’ life personally and had a closer communication with them, which inspired her later writings, including The Good Earth，East Wind: West Wind, etc. She also had a retarded child with her husband, which, to some extent, had an impact on her life and one of roles in the book.
With several twists and turns, Buck returned to China where was wracked by the civil war, so she was forced to hide and flee to Japan for one year. This unpleasant experience played an important role in shaping her view towards Chinese wars and revolutions (Zhang Wei, 2013:12). Although most of Westerners thought Chinese people were inferior at the beginning of 20th century, Pearl did not allow Chinese people to be misunderstood since she had greatly benefited from Chinese culture and she respected the spirits of Chinese peasants. Through both cultural exposure to China and America, she decided to build a cultural bridge between the two countries. That was the reason why her novels always gave importance to Chinese people and culture. Such novels attracted Americans and reduced mutual misconceptions. Her understanding of China was different from those who lived in America from birth, because she felt Chinese cultures and ordinary people with her heart and these feelings had a beneficial effect on her future great literatures.
1.2 Social Backgrounds of The Good Earth
Since Buck experienced a long time in poor rural areas in China and had a lot of Chinese peasant friends, she deeply understood Chinese peasants’ life and values. At that time, China suffered from civil war and was in unsteady national condition, but the spirits or values of those Chinese peasants were strong. For example, we could see their painstaking efforts, perseverance and some traditional moral values, and so on.
Before the publication of her classic work The Good Earth, westerners had personal prejudice about China and Chinese peasants. However, her work was essential to the development of multicultural exchanges and to some extent changed westerners’ traditional views. “Pearl Buck’s standpoint was finally that of an outsider who was particularly sensitive to aspects of Chinese life that was different from what Westerners were accustomed to” (Net.1). Therefore, the new Chinese peasant images described by Buck were controversial between both Westerners and Chinese during that period. The theme---love of the earth, showed her unique views and sympathetic heart in The Good Earth. The book was also a forerunner in communication between China and Western countries.
2 The Interpretation of Chinese Peasant Images
The Chinese peasants’ image was a signal and identification in considering China, because they formed an important part of Chinese images throughout the history. The social progress exercised a great influence on Chinese peasants’ images. For example, in traditional Chinese paintings and poems, peasants’ farming progress and farming scenes were presented clearly and they worked hard in the strong sun, with wet towels on their shoulders and straw hats on their heads, while most peasants today harvested by using advanced technologies and they had more spare time to do the other businesses. Therefore, their images had changed with the change of the time.