Pearl S. Buck: Bridging Her Legacy

1 Sai Zhenzhu

Who was Sai Zhenzhu? A young girl born in 1892 to Presbyterian missionaries living in China, Sai Zhenzhu, or in English, Pearl Sydenstricker, was a witty and intelligent child who grew up among the people of China. Pearl lived in China her entire childhood and most of her young adult life, amounting to about 40 years. As a missionary child, she lived primarily in Zhenjiang, a small, crowded city on the Yangtze River surrounded by mountains and bamboo groves. Immersed in the native culture and language by her Chinese amah, Wang, a young Pearl saw the world in a very different light than many American children. By the age of six, she was fluent in Chinese, had published her first piece of writing in the local Shanghai Mercury newspaper, suffered the loss of several siblings, experienced being a minority, and witnessed the steady decline of the Chinese Imperial Family. This part of Ms. Buck’s life forever influenced her work.

As a young adult living in China, Pearl married John Lossing Buck, an agricultural missionary. By 1920 Pearl and her husband also became instructors at the University of Nanking and celebrated the birth of their daughter, Carol Grace Buck. These events carried Ms. Buck into adulthood during a difficult 10 years that would change the course of her life. The 1920s sent the Buck family in many directions. The family’s working life was busy. Pearl’s mother died, and the young couple received the devastating diagnosis that their daughter and only biological child had an unnamed intellectual disability. The difficulties of the decade came to a climax in March of 1927 with the Nanking Incident, a violent conflict between warring factions over the city that resulted in many deaths. The Buck home, like the homes of many foreigners living in the city, was among the targets. The family was lucky to survive. Following this incident, Pearl Buck concentrated all her efforts on writing. She wrote about a subject she knew intimately and close to her heart – life in China. This effort resulted in the eventual publication of her 1930 and 1931 books, East Wind, West Wind and The Good Earth, by the John Day Publishing Company.

2 The Prizes

In 1932 The Good Earth won the Pulitzer Prize. This was a shock to Ms. Buck as it was unusual for a novel set outside of the United States to win. Book sales soared and Pearl Buck’s popularity grew exponentially. Not long after winning the Pulitzer, in 1934, Pearl Buck left China, her beloved first home, for what would turn out to be the last time – due to circumstances beyond her control. In America, Pearl Buck had divorced her first husband and married her second husband and publisher Richard J. Walsh. They expanded their family by adopting seven children together. The Walsh family settled on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA – Green Hills Farm. The property featured acres of open space and an 1820s stone farmhouse, portions of which date back to the 18th century – all of which still exist today. Pearl and Richard would expand and update the property to comfortably house their growing family. This would be the place where Pearl Buck would raise her family, continue writing, spearhead causes related to civil rights, and create a legacy that would change the lives of thousands of children. The next several decades would be a balancing act between being a famous author, a mother, a wife, a humanitarian, and an activist.

In the autumn of 1938, Pearl Buck was notified she would be the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her first reaction to this news was in Chinese – “I don’t believe it.” Ms. Buck remained in awe of this news because having spent the first half of her life in China and among the Chinese people, she continued to feel like an outsider in American culture. This would not change throughout her life.

3 An Era of Service (1934–1973)

Pearl Buck’s reputation was severely damaged following her Nobel Prize win. Prior to winning, Ms. Buck was regarded as one of many on a long list of popular writers. She was not considered someone of acclaim or notable talent in America. After her win, she gained a level of notoriety and transformed into a would-be woman of letters and an outspoken advocate for women, children, and minorities. While popular with readers, America’s critics were sometimes harsh. Although questioned by her critics, Ms. Buck’s elevated status in the literary world made her uniquely poised to engage in decades of service.

The World War II era proved to be one of the most active periods in Pearl Buck’s life and set the stage for her humanitarian work. Much of 1941 was dedicated to fundraising for the many humanitarian causes with which Pearl and Richard were involved. The Walshes simultaneously managed their newly founded East and West Association, China Emergency Relief Committee, and United China Relief Fund. The East and West Association was dedicated to cultural exchange and understanding between Asia and the West. The work of the Association included public appearances, radio broadcasts, television and film coverage with international citizens, scholars, and celebrities advocating for peace and harmony through understanding and acceptance. As Co-owner of the Association, Pearl Buck also purchased the magazine, Asia and the Americas. The satellite office for the Association was at Green Hills Farm. The China Emergency Relief Committee and United China Relief Fund were organizations that sought to raise funds for humanitarian aid to China during the early days of the war against Japan. Pearl Buck served as chair. Millions of dollars were raised by both groups. The Chinese Ambassador, Hu Shih, awarded Pearl Buck the Order of the Jade for her service.

4 Welcome House

Over the course of their marriage, Pearl and Richard Walsh adopted six children – this was in addition to Ms. Buck’s biological daughter, Carol, and her adoptive daughter, Janice, with former husband Lossing Buck. Pearl Buck felt that orphanages and foster homes did some good but there was a great amount of prejudice against illegitimate and mixed-race children. In late December of 1948 a letter arrived at Green Hills Farm asking Pearl to help place a half East Indian half American fifteen-month-old boy who had been rejected by his family due to being mixed-race. This was new territory for Pearl Buck, but she took on the challenge of finding a place for the young boy to go. When it became clear that there was nowhere for the boy to go, Ms. Buck decided to take him into her home until she could find a solution. A few days later a second baby, half Chinese and half American, arrived at the farm. Pearl soon understood that the world these children were born into would classify them as unadoptable. These children would be called Amerasian, a term coined by Pearl Buck to describe children of Asian mothers and American fathers, many of whom were soldiers and sailors stationed abroad because of war around the world. Her mission became to find families for children who were cast aside by other agencies – minority, disabled, and older children. As a result of World War II, thousands of Amerasian children were born and neglected by both Asian and American society, both of which labeled these children as not belonging.

To solve this problem, Pearl Buck began pulling together local parents and friends in Bucks County to temporarily foster children. The Yoder family was the first family personally chosen by Ms. Buck to spearhead this endeavor. The Yoders already had two children but decided to take in the two babies who were dropped off at Green Hills Farm – those boys became David and Leon Yoder, loved and cherished members of the family. The Yoders would expand their family to take in 10 Amerasian children. Over the next several years, Pearl created an administrative infrastructure, raised money, and incorporated a new adoption agency she named Welcome House. While much of this work was done alone in the beginning, Ms. Buck later formed an alliance toward this cause with many prominent Bucks County, Pennsylvania residents such as Oscar Hammerstein II, David and Lois Burpee, and James Michener. These friends would become the founding board and longtime supporters of Welcome House. Through her hard work and determination, she eventually placed every child who came to her home. To these children, Pearl Buck would forever be their “Gran,” as the Welcome House children called her. At the end of the Korean War, Welcome House became the first international adoption agency in the United States to serve children of mixed race and continued to operate in Bucks County, Pennsylvania until 2014. During that time, over 7,000 children were placed in loving homes.

5 Pearl S. Buck Foundation

Taking up the cause of mixed-race children, Pearl Buck tried to rally public support in a series of articles and in a book, Children for Adoption. This book and Ms. Buck’s efforts led to gradual changes in international adoption law. The work was slow, and the problem was growing exponentially. Ms. Buck soon realized that the majority of Amerasian children were not orphans and therefore could not be adopted in the United States. Another strategy was needed. After several attempts at getting government or veteran support to help, Pearl realized she needed another way to support these children in the countries of their birth. In January 1964, Ms. Buck was awarded the prestigious Gimbel Award for her humanitarian work. At the ceremony in Philadelphia, she announced that she would use the prize money to create a new organization, the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. Ms. Buck said in her founding statement, “…This is the only agency to which I have ever given or will ever give my own name. I have done so because after 25 years of experience in the field of lost and needy children, I have come to believe that the most effective efforts on their behalf are usually initiated by individuals who have a deep concern for human justice. The purpose of the Foundation is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic, and civil privileges normally accorded to children.”

To make this new endeavor a success, Ms. Buck donated $500,000 of her own money to kickstart the Foundation. A headquarters building was purchased on Delancey Place in Philadelphia, and satellite offices opened in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam over the course of six years. In 1973, Ms. Buck passed away and bequeathed her Bucks County home and its contents to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to help further the mission.

6 The Legacy Continues

To sustain both organizations, Welcome House and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation merged into the organization now known as Pearl S. Buck International (PSBI) in 1991. Welcome House continued to do international adoptions until 2014 when the agency closed due to changes in international adoption laws. Today, the legacy of Pearl S. Buck lives on through PSBI. PSBI’s international headquarters is located at Ms. Buck’s former home of Green Hills Farm in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. PSBI provides opportunities to explore and appreciate other cultures, builds better lives for children around the globe, and promotes the legacy of its founder by preserving and interpreting her National Historic Landmark Home.

Since 1964, PSBI has established successful international humanitarian programs across Asia as well as Kenya through a child sponsorship program. Over two million children and their families have been provided education, nutrition, healthcare, and psycho-social services through the program. Because of PSBI’s model of matching one child to one sponsor, the relationship between a child and their sponsor is unique and rewarding. Sponsors receive letters, drawings, and photos about their child and their progress. Some of these relationships last a lifetime. In 1980 the Pearl S. Buck House was given the status of a National Historic Landmark and opened as a historic house museum. The beautiful and iconic stone farmhouse contains an intact collection that makes the everyday existence and legacy of Pearl Buck come to life. Visitors to Ms. Buck’s home enjoy the unique experience of seeing what her personal life was really like through artifacts from the extraordinary – the typewriter on which she wrote The Good Earth – to the ordinary, such as a cabinet full of dishes her family ate from. The collection also includes the personal papers of Pearl S. Buck and Richard J. Walsh. The Pearl S. Buck House is open to the public for tours and programming year-round.

Over the last 50 years scholars world-wide have recognized the work of Pearl Buck as impactful and groundbreaking. In 2024, Pearl S. Buck International, the United States-based foundation created by Ms. Buck, reflected on and shared the remarkable humanitarian, advocacy, and literary legacy of a woman ahead of her time as the organization celebrated 60 years of service to millions of children and families across the globe. The capstone to this celebration took place in September 2024 when scholars from the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and the United States gathered for the annual Pearl S. Buck International Symposium. The scholarship shared at this symposium evidently demonstrated the need for more collaboration among researchers and for further sharing of the literary work of Pearl Buck across the globe to promote cross-cultural understanding today. This special issue, a compilation of papers presented in September 2024's Pearl S. Buck International Symposium, symbolizes a significant and inspiring step in this direction.