Introduction
Several literary authors have previously written about family and kinship; many of them have used their own personal experiences to explain the mortal bond that exists between people.
Pearl Buck and The Good Earth
As the daughter of a Presbyterian missionary, Pearl Buck spent the most of her early years immersed in the local Chinese culture. She was born in 1892. She based The Good Earth, her debut book, on her experiences growing up in the Chinese culture. Born in China but spent part of her life in America, Pearl Buck wrote My Several Worlds to reflect the difference in societal view of China and America, the two areas she had lived.
The Analysis of Chinese Culture
Hugh Baker wrote and published a book Chinese Family and Kinship in 1979, his story features a scientist who solved the mystery of a feared disease in Hong Kong. The discovery was made after a serious race by two scientists Alexandre Yersin and Kitasaka. Pearl Buck analyzes Chinese and American culture while Baker analyzes kinship and family in China. This essay, therefore, focuses on the aspects of cultural family and kinship in China explored by Baker that Buck would comment.
The Chinese Family in Baker's Account
Baker writes an account that provides a picture of the place of a family and kinship in Chinese society, (xi) he explains that "we have one family model, which was realized to a greater or lesser extent by all Chinese families" (2). According to Buck, the lineage in Chinese culture was similar in both structure and basic family ethos. Buck explains that the Chinese family is internally focused and could hardly nurture tribesmen disloyal to their culture, they characterized outsiders with "hostility, distrust and indifference" (123). Diverse cultural villages were known for wars, disputes, and uneasiness. Buck describes higher lineage and clans as a leap of true and artificial kinship (69). Pearl, however, did not appreciate the Chinese culture; she did not challenge her father's theology but suggested a resentment on how he treated his wife and his children. She shared her view on the financial culture to her mother.
Buck's Acceptance of Chinese Culture
In her first section, however, Buck acknowledges her acceptance of Chinese culture. She had Chinese friends and played games with them. Buck said that her friends came and went, and their favorite playing place was the hillside in front of the gate. She pursued logical themes like foreign government's role in the culture of the Chinese, the impact of learning Chinese language, and the challenges faced while reconciling Chinese life and American life. By pursuing these positive themes, Buck seemed critical of Baker's argument of the Chinese groupings as internally focused and negative perception on the outsiders. Maybe, Buck and Baker were in two different Chinese groupings.
Baker's Treatment of the Chinese Family
In chapter seven of Baker's book, he argued that Chinese were habitual in their kinship model for the organization of the social groupings. In his first seven chapters, Baker pictures that the Chinese society was made of only individual groups, kinship ties, and the universal state. Families held individuals' subordinates and existed uneasily with the state. Buck acknowledges the coexistence of families and the state in Chinese culture as well.
Buck's Valuation of Extended Family
Baker's treatment of family is, however, radical enough to Pearl. As long as she lived in China, she had an extended family in America. Even though she had no much attachment to them as their Chinese friends, she still valued them, "I am glad I once had the great joy of living, even for that year of McKinley's assassination, with my grandfather and my uncle and aunts and cousins in a big porticoed house" (47). She acknowledged the position of her grandfather in the family. Even though she did not live with them anymore, she had known them as the father of her mother (49).
Baker's Description of Lineages in Rural Hong Kong
Baker takes us through his experience in fieldwork in a rural area in Hong Kong. He takes two chapters to describe lineages in rural Hong Kong. He generated some hypotheses on the Chinese people living in that place; he talked of their hostility, intermarriages within the lineage. He illuminated the Chinese family and kinship organization as designed in a way that is similar to the African way. Buck would consider this real and not a miss of fact, this would be because she lived in China when tribal conflicts were random and could not ignore the fact that it was part of that societal culture. She also remembers some special Chinese teachings and acknowledges them in her writing. Buck said that the important lesson that Baker taught her was that if one would be happy, he must not raise his head above the neighbors.
Buck's View on China and Baker's Work
"There was nothing healthy or good about Shanghai life, the Chinese city was filthy and crowded and the foreign concessions were hiding places for criminals of all countries" (262). Buck did not like China from the foregoing; she views the country as full of filth. On reading Baker's book, Buck would recognize the competent job of the author; she would say that Baker's work was a complement to her work. This would be because Buck discloses the Chinese culture, however, she does it comparatively to the American culture, and Baker, on the other hand, digs deep into the roots of Chinese cultural practices, early community state, and family and kinship organizations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Baker's treatment of the idea of the family would likely not satisfy Buck, the confinement and obligations of members of a kinship and the family in the Chinese culture make Buck uneasy. She acknowledges the Chinese culture but wants its way of reception into their family different. Buck, considering her other world (America), would perceive Baker's writing rather radical but true and more comprehensive on the Chinese culture and tradition than the book My Several Worlds.
Works Cited
Baker, Hugh D. “Chinese family and kinship.” (1979). Web. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/div-classtitlechinese-family-and-kinship-by-bakerhugh-d-r-new-york-columbia-university-press-1979-xii-243-pp-maps-figures-appendixes-notes-list-of-works-cited-glossary-index-1750div/F5B8BC713D956F1B03A6974A5627FE34 on 24th March 2017
Buck, Pearl S. My several worlds: a personal record. Open Road Media, 2013. Web. Retrieved https://archive.org/search.php?query=My%20Several%20Worlds%3A%20A%20Personal%20Record%20by%20Pearl%20S.%20Buck on 27th March 2017
Hayford, Charles W. “Chinese Family and Kinship. By Hugh Dr Baker. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. xii, 243 pp. Maps, Figures, Appendixes, Notes, List of Works Cited, Glossary, Index. $17.50. Writings on Chinese family and kinship systems may be divided into two categories: those based upon ethnographic data and those based upon Confucian.” Web. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/div-classtitlechinese-family-and-kinship-by-bakerhugh-d-r-new-york-columbia-university-press-1979-xii-243-pp-maps-figures-appendixes-notes-list-of-works-cited-glossary-index-1750div/F5B8BC713D956F1B03A6974A5627FE34 on 26th March 2017
