Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck will be a buddy read with Terry and Lori starting September 2021. Everyone is invited to join in the discussion.

Thanks Katy! Anyone who’d like to join, please do! Looking forward to to it. This will be my Nobel category for Bingo and it can also be used in the Pulitzer slot if anyone still needs to complete those.

Oh awesome! I picked this up from the library recently “just because”.

Great, Allie. So glad you will be joining us.

Even though it’s a bit early to start, I have finished my previous book and am ready to start The Good Earth. Winner of a Pulitzer, Pearl S. Buck was the first woman writer to win a Nobel.

The book takes place during the reign of the last emperor of China, which was roughly 1906 - 1917. Buck published the novel in 1931. Buck’s is a story of ordinary people. She lived in China as a child of missionaries and again as a young woman in Anhwei Province, although she was educated in the US.

However, before beginning the novel, I thought I would look up a little early 20th Century Chinese history. The novel begins during the reign of the last emperor of China, Puyi, Qing Dynasty. He was emperor from age 2 in 1906, until 1912 when he was forced to abdicate, and then was briefly returned to the palace in 1917. The Japanese also reinstated him (1934-1945) as a puppet ruler. Here is an interesting link about Puyi’s life in bullet points: https://www.chinahighlights.com/trave...

Also see The Last Emperor, an Oscar winning 1987 film by Bernardo Bertolucci. Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4cH6.... I have watched it on television many times. It is a film that is very richly textured.

I found this following timeline from www.chipublib.org. I cut the timeline off at 1958, the year that the great famine in China started when millions starved. At that time, Puyi was being “reformed” as a war criminal in prison. He received a formal pardon in 1959. He died in 1967.

Timeline of China’s Modern History
1912-25. After the 1911 collapse of the Qing Dynasty, China declares itself a republic in 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as the first president. Sun founds the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT) and later resigns in favor of Yuan Shihkai. Shihkai attempts to reinstate the monarchy but fails, and after his death in 1916 the country is left without a strong central leader, and the country descends into a period of control by warlords.

1921-35. The Chinese Communist Party is founded in Shanghai. Mao Zedong leads the Long March and establishes revolutionary headquarters in Yenan.

1925. Sun Yat-sen dies; Chiang Kai-shek assumes leadership of KMT and launches the Northern Expedition that reunifies China under Nationalist government.

1920s-1950. Traditional arranged marriage continues in both the legal system and local customs; it is marked by complex negotiations of families through matchmakers regarding the bride price and the bride’s dowry.

December 1937-March 1938. During the Sino-Japanese War, the four-month Japanese occupation of Nanking known as the Rape of Nanking is the cause of an estimated 260,000 Chinese civilian casualties during the invasion.

1946-49. Civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists results in the Communists’ victory; the Nationalist government evacuates to the island of Taiwan.

1949. Mao proclaims the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

1950. A new marriage law bans polygamy and arranged marriages, promoting women’s equality and encouraging freedom of choice in selecting a spouse.
The Agrarian Reform Law redistributes the land of landlords and wealthy farmers to millions of peasants.

1950s-1978. A planned economy demands rationed household goods and food. By national poverty line criteria, people in poverty are estimated at 260 million and the income gap between rural and urban populations grows.

1953. Mao begins Rural Collectivization based on a five-year plan. Individual landownership is abolished and replaced with cooperatives.

1957-58. An “Anti-Rightist” campaign is used by Mao to eliminate critical intellectuals. A half-million dissidents are sent to remote labor camps for “reform through labor.”

1958-62. The “Great Leap Forward” plan calls for an unrealistic increase in industrial and agricultural production. All land is collectivized and farmers are organized into People’s Communes. Mao declares the goal of passing Great Britain in industrial production by 1972, and backyard furnaces for steel production are created across the country. However, the steel produced is of poor quality and the agricultural reforms cause one of the largest famines in human history, with an estimated 30 million deaths from starvation.

Wow, Terry, thank you for the research. I hope to start by tomorrow or Tuesday. I am definitely looking forward to reading this one.

I was previously wondering if this was one of those books I read years ago and then forgot. But I can now say no. I would have remembered this one! I am really enjoying this.

Brass coins from Anhwei, c. 1897.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&u...

Anhwei Province, modern landscape, photo link:

https://zerovacations.files.wordpress...

Brittanica article about the Anhwei Province, including picture of traditional village, link:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Anhui

Terry wrote: "Even though it’s a bit early to start, I have finished my previous book and am ready to start The Good Earth. Winner of a Pulitzer, Pearl S. Buck was the first woman writer to win a Nobel.

The bo..."

Wow, Terry. You really did your research!!

I got started today and finished the first chapter so far. It is really good so far. I am really enjoying learning about the traditions for the marriage of a poor man and the way in which they went about finding him a wife. Very interesting. I look forward to getting into this more deeply.

I've read through the first 11 chapters. So much change has occurred in the country and in this family.

(view spoiler)[I enjoyed how the book started with the anticipation of Wang Lung's wedding day. His preparations for it and how little money he and his father had. I was struck by the fact that there really was not a ceremony. He just went to pick O-lan up from the house of her employer and brought her home.
Some very interesting customs with women as lowly servants basically and value on sons and not daughters. I remember my mom and dad went to Hong Kong in the 80's when I was young and she came back with some beautiful jewelry and a doll for me wearing silk with a straw pointed hat. She told us about how she learned of the custom that they would kill the babies if they were girls, especially if they didn't have sons at all. Here we see O-lan doing this but out of the fact that it wouldn't have lived with no food to be had at this point.
It is interesting how they went from saving to nothing. No rain meant no harvest and no food. Now they are in the city and are faced with a new and strange lifestyle. I'm not sure that Wang is cut out for this. (hide spoiler)]

I am really liking this very much. We are seeing a difference in the rich versus the poor families and that hard times can fall upon all.

I am in the middle of Chapter 17 and loving this book so far.

As a side note, Chairman Mao banned this book. I have no idea if the ban was lifted. However, I am planning to loan this book to my Chinese co-worker. I told her about the movie of The Joy Luck Club when she told me that her English reading goes slow. She watched and loved the movie. Then I gave her the book and she has been reading it. So, I think she might like this, too.

The Joy Luck Club is another wonderful book. It would be interesting to talk with your coworker- a little book chat between you two!

Terri, I just read that the ban was officially lifted in 1994.

Good to know, Lori — thanks!

Oh, how come I always miss the buddy reads? Is it to late to start?

Nope! We just started this for September. Would love to have you join us, Nike!

Nike, please join us! Although I am 70% through, I am holding back on comments to let others catch up. I will say that I am entranced by this story that contains the seeds of later 20th Century changes in China.

Also, some of us will be reading Enemy Women later this month, starting about September 15, and welcome others to join us. It is about a woman in Missouri during the Civil War.

Then, (not this month) there is also an upcoming series by Conrad Richter, starting with The Trees. The series is about the settling of Ohio.

Terry, I finished yesterday and am still enmeshed in the story and all that happened. It has a very timeless feel with only hints at what’s happening in China.

Yes, it reads like a tale told long ago by elders about a time long past. But I say it has the seeds of revolution because of the

Yes, it reads like a tale told long ago by an elder. It contains some of the seeds of coming revolution because of the vast differences between the rich and the poor, and the poor people dealing with droughts and floods, both leading to starvation and sometimes to the ruin of even the rich. Then, it was such a patriarchal society with women deemed as slaves, or the poorest of the poor.

Lori wrote: "Nope! We just started this for September. Would love to have you join us, Nike!"

Oh, that's terrific! Thank you 🙂

Terry wrote: "Nike, please join us! Although I am 70% through, I am holding back on comments to let others catch up. I will say that I am entranced by this story that contains the seeds of later 20th Century cha..."

Thank you 🙂

I finished this morning. I am still trying to put my thoughts together before writing a review.

Terry,
I still haven't written mine yet. I need some time of quiet to get my thoughts together and there's too much distraction around me right now.

I thought of the friction between the Wang and his sons here as something that is inevitable no matter what. What Wang found as valuable - the land - he hoped to impart in his sons. The ending was a wow for me.

So, I've just started reading it and I reacted immediately to Wang Lung's thoughts about his wifes feet not being bound and misformed, that he was disappointed. I find myself happy that Olan has healthy and happy feet and I'm glad to know that not every woman had her feet bound. It's also shocking and sad that the wedding festivites are only for men and that the brides wasn't included at all! And also that it was beneath her father in law's dignity to even notice her at her arrival. =(

Yes, Nike, it is very sad the way that O-Lan is treated. The women of the book are treated either sex objects or drudges. O-Lan is treated as a slave because Wang does not find her attractive. However, in a way, this book is as much about her as it is about him.

O-lan is definitely as much a central character here as Wang. She makes some of the most difficult decisions throughout and sacrifices much. She is silent as that is acceptable and she accepts her lower position and never complains. She also accepts Wang's cruelty about her feet.

Finally started this over the weekend and made it to page 120 - Chapter 14.

My first thought was that this is very readable. Perhaps it being a classic and “foreign”, I thought it would be a bit denser in writing than it actual is. I’m liking it very much so far and find that while reading it, I don’t want to put it down.

I abhor the color red but this had me thinking for a while that if it made me the richest person in the village, excuse me while I go dye all the eggs in my house red :P

And then…..nevermind. Lol.

Nike wrote: "So, I've just started reading it and I reacted immediately to Wang Lung's thoughts about his wifes feet not being bound and misformed, that he was disappointed. I find myself happy that Olan has he..."

The one instance where being a slave, you actually came out on the winning end!

Allie, so glad you are enjoying this. I enjoyed the writing style and found it very readable as well. It’s so interesting how drastic their circumstances changed.
You’ll be finished in no time as quickly as you have gotten so far!

I finished it the other day and I liked it a lot. It's always fascinating and educating to read history from the focal point of the common people.

As always I get upset of the conditions of women throughout history and all over the world and I had to put the book down a few days at some occasions because I got so utterly angry and upset. And no, of course I am not surprised and of course I know how the patriarchy functions but still I get furious.

I would have loved to read a book from the view of O-lan. Nevertheless I liked it a lot, I've always been interested in history and I've always been interested in Southeast Asia.

Finally finished this a month later.

I was so bored.

And wanted to hit Wang Lung over his stupid head. What a fickle, ever-changing character! Poor Olan, the only character worth reading about.

I don’t get why this is such a classic….it’s not even all that well written. Thank goodness it can go back to the library now!

Not sure if you all know it. The Good Earth is the first book of a trilogy.

I have read the first and actually picked it at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago. The book was very inexpensive
The Good Earth Trilogy: The Good Earth, Sons, and A House Divided

MaryAnn (EmilyD1037) wrote: "Not sure if you all know it. The Good Earth is the first book of a trilogy.

I have read the first and actually picked it at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago. The book was very inex..."

I found out after I finished it and I wonder if I will read the others or not. I haven't made up my mind yet.

I also knew there were 2 more books in the series. I believe the second one continues the sons' stories so I'm guessing it will be pretty bleak as well.

I enjoyed The Good Earth and appreciated the culture and although much of what occurred is shocking and appalling to our modern sensibilities, it's a book you must read knowing that this was just the way life was for Olan. She accepted it because she had no other choice.

Please continue discussion at The Good Earth threads here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...