"The Good Earth," why do I like it so much...?

[Isaac Ho, the Admin]

THE GOOD EARTH, WHY DO I LIKE IT SO MUCH?

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by Isaac Ho, the Admin & Founder of this Forum

Well, I was still in my teens at Kuala Lumpur,  in  the then "British" Malaya as I attended the  morning class at The Methodist Boys'

School  on Petaling Hill.

And opposite my missionary school, just across the football field, was the prominent Confucian School, a Chinese school, ran by

the ardent support of the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur, since the British government was not interested to promote the

Chinese language and culture at that time in the early 1950's...!

Ironically, the country was then experiencing an internal "uprising"  by the underground Communist Party of Malaya, led by the

anti-Jap fighter named Chin Peng,  which gathered a sizable army of experienced jungle fighters (with the support of the departing

British colonial government); they along with some British stay-behind officers, including Col. Spencer Chapman, (author of the

famous book, titled: THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL - portraying the fight against the Imperial Jap invaders into Malaya at the time

(1942-1945)) were fighting the Imperial Jap armies and harassed them at any given opportunity. Afterward, when the Japs were

defeated and unconditionally surrendered,  the  shooting war started  between the anti-Jap fighters in the Malayan jungles  and the

British Colonial government soldiers. This  was then known as  THE EMERGENCY,  and it begun in 1948 until 1960,  until it was

declared as over...!

I was then in this period an eager teenager and my dad taught be a lot about Chinese history, culture and its fantastic norms;

this family education lasted me until this day and is still intensifying as I continue to study the Chinese literature and history.

I was then around 12 years old and joined as a reading member of the USIA library, located on the ground floor of the Loke Yew

Building at Kuala Lumpur. It has a good range of books for students like myself because my school didn't stock a variety of books,

particularly on Chinese literature, philosophy and history. So I borrowed, one book at a time, from the USIS (United States

Information Service) library after school hours in the afternoon.

Additionally, my parents enrolled me for a Chinese education at the Confucius School after the morning class at MBS, this class

had a range from Primary One to Six in Mandarin Chinese. And for two hours between four to six p.m., five days a week.  The

classes were run by active members of the Kwang Siew Association. The class fee per month was   only one Malayan dollar.

Hence, from this Chinese education plus the interest shown by my dad had imparted in me the urge as well as the desire to

learn more and more about Chinese literature and history.

Then when I finished my English  school career and employed by the then Cycle & Carriage Co., at the then Batu Road

in Kuala Lumpur, in time, I came to know a good colleague by the name of Yap Pow Who, a competent radio technician, who also

work for the Radio Section of the Company. Thus, on each Saturday (half-day) afternoon, he would give me a ride on his powerful

motor cycle and we would go to the various book shops in search of good books to buy and read, especially on translated Chinese

literature. We managed to buy several good translations of famous Chinese classics which I had discussed in the article "Of Shui

Hu Chuan and Pearl S. Buck.

Now back to 1953 and in the USIS library, I first came across the famous Chinese novel, entitled: THE GOOD EARTH,  as written

by Pearl S. Buck. And without any doubt, I quickly borrowed the book to which I was entitled to read for a couple of weeks.

I found The Good Earth to be a fascinating study of the simple Chinese farmer Wang Lung and his loyal wife O-Lan  and their

way of life in struggle to coax the fertile earth to produce rice or wheat, year after year, with care  in tendering to the field

and watering it daily so that the plants would grow and provide them with the precious grain at harvest, if all things went well -

the blessed good weather, the timely rain and the mild breeze and their fertile field, just one or two acres of precious land

handed by their father and their fathers before them...into fruition and thereby gathered in the harvest of valuable grains for

sale to obtain some cash for their daily necessities of life in the walled town some distance away. Then on the way home after

selling their precious grains to the townsmen, they would passed by the Earthen Gods, a tiny mud home among their grain field

and then Wang Lung and O-lan would both knelt  and prayed to the gods which favoured them with a good harvest. In

a good year, Wang Lung would even hired an artist to paint a scene of bamboos and hills and then pasted the picture behind

the Earthen Gods, both male and female, and their old father would also clothed  the godly pair with red paper dresses and offered

the burning of joss sticks and red candles to pay homage to them. When these had been reduced to ashes after a long while,

Wang Lung and O-Lan would walk on the muddy path along their now harvested fields on their way home, bearing gingerly

a tiny basket filled with precious food bought from the town's wet market - a small pond fish of a carp grasping for air and

struggling at the bottom of the basket, a half pound of minced pork wrapped in lotus leaves, four pieces of shivering jelly like

whitish bean curd for making soup perhaps and several careful selection of preserved vegetables to cook with the grounded

pork. Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan had planned a lavish dinner to celebrate their wonderful and rewarding harvest and the

successful conclusion of selling some grains for a few silver dollars which would be hidden behind a brick in the mud wall for

security reason. Then after cooking the precious groceries, together with their old father and their children, Wang Lung and O-Lan

would sit down in the main hall of their mud house and enjoyed a good dinner - just once a year after a good harvest.

All these events were recorded faithfully and accurately by the keen Pearl S. Buck in her first book THE GOOD EARTH.

Eventually, this books which was translated into several foreign languages had earned the American Pulitzer Prize for Pearl S.

Buck under the category of good and imaginative novel-writing.

Unfortunately, Pearl S. Buck initial success in writing about the life of the simple Chinese farmer, had incurred the wrath and

jealousies of some Chinese writers plus a host of American writers. They criticised Pearl S. Buck for writing in error about the

actual life of Chinese farmers. But these critics themselves were not able to produce a book to match the keen observations

as taken down by Pearl S. Buck into such a classic Chinese novel.

THE GOOD EARTH   was based on the farmers life in Anhui province of Central China during the Republican period when the

Manchu Dynasty was no more and when the Imperial Jap armies had invaded China's northwest and plotted and schemed to

established the Manchuko or the Kingdom of the Manchus with the so-called last emperor of Manchu China - Henry Puyi, who

would eventually became a political pawn and puppet of the Imperial Jap armies which occupied China...a traitorous collaborater

to the bastardly and cowardly Jap armies illegally occupying China's northeast region...!!!

This was the chaotic time in China and this was when Pearl S. Buck began to realize the alien imperial forces trying to destroy

China, illegally  occupied the vast land among themselves and plundered and robbed the wealth of the country, and treated the

innocent and common people like slaves.

Pearl S. Buck, after finishing her first novel THE GOOD EARTH, began to plan another book THE PATRIOT, about the young

Chinese fighting against the cruel and barbaric Imperial Jap invaders (today the fight against them still goes on under the

political bastard and monstrous pig called Shinzo Abe and his rightist, militant cohorts which must be utterly defeated in the end

by the heroic Chinese). As the only Western voice crying in the chaotic environment of a weak and politically divided early China,

Pearl S. Buck was a great defender of the Chinese people and made this known to the West, especially  her country of origin,

i.e. the United States. But she was met with much obstacles by her fellow writers which deliberately tried to obstracize her

for her keen and accurate observation of a China  by peaceful and innocent people who were (are) only interested to

persue their economic interest and continuous prosperity.

I salute the late Pearl  S. Buck who did went out of her way  to produce a dozen books about modern China and that these books

have endured to this day and stand as a testimonial of  faith and love of China and the Chinese people by the single-minded

Pearl S. Buck. And I pray that her soul could rest in peace and knowing that China today is strong, powerful and pulsating with

military strength and power and stands ready to  repulse  all the enemies at its gate -  i.e. the bastardly  Japs, the troublemaking  

Yanks, the ungrateful  Charlie  Vietcongs and others!

China and her dynamic and innovative people have the strength and capability  to defeat all these enemies - once and for all

times....hence, thereby end their present and persistent threat against my ancestry homeland of China.

THE GREATEST THREAT TO REGIONAL AND WORLD PEACE AND LAW AND ORDER ARE THE BASTARDLY JAP OF THAT MONSTROUS

PIG CALLED SHINZO ABE AND THE SELF-APPOINTED WORLD POLICEMAN - THE MEDDLING UNITED STATES UNDER OBAMA THE

TERRIBLE.

Their nefarious and devious schemes are  now exposed and should be utterly opposed and defeated by China and the ever-

victorious PLA and the united Chinese people - in both mainland China and overseas....Cheers!!!