The Depiction Of Chinese Women From Western Eyes

Pearl Buck, an American Nobel Prize winner in literature in the 1930s, wrote several novels about China in the early decades of the twentieth century. This thesis, on the basis of the feminist criticism, is mainly engaged in the discussion of Chinese women problems in her three novels, namely, The Good Earth, The Mother and East Wind: West Wind. In these novels, Pearl Buck's women characters appear to be strong and persevering, which proves that women are not destined to be inferior to men. At the same time, Pearl Buck's female protagonists are still suffering from patriarchy, which exposes men's maltreatment of women. On the other hand, it is significant to realize Pearl Buck's patronizing attitudes toward Chinese women. Compared to the Chinese female writers at that time, Pearl Buck disclosed a static China in her novels, with no reference to the Chinese social transformations in the turn of the twentieth century. Most of her women characters remain silent and uncomplaining; beautiful and empty. Though Pearl Buck's novels reveal her careful observation of the problems of the Chinese women in the turn of the twentieth century, her understanding of them is limited and her depictions are not representational.