A Study Of Hollywood Adaptations Of Pearl S. Buck's China Novels

The 1938 Nobel Prize laureate Pearl S. Buck is well known for her vivid portrayal of China and Chinese people. The dissertation examines the four Hollywood film adaptations based on her China novels. It not only traces the beginning, complication and development of this cross-cultural endeavor but also investigates the strategies employed by the American film companies for their films to respond to the cultural and social conditions of the time. The thesis also aims at identifying some general rules in intercultural cinematic adaptations. The paper is divided into the following chapters:Chapter One discusses the on-screen realization of The Good Earth in the post Depression-era. It examines how MGM and the Nationalist Chinese government communicated and compromised with each other on the issue of truthful depiction of rural China. It also investigates the rewriting strategies used by the filmmakers to cater to the taste of specific audiences and requirement of cinematic narrative. Reducing the number of scenes that show China as backward, uncivilized, and chaotic in the original text, MGM compromised to a certain degree with the Chinese government request and was consequently able to attract more Chinese audience. By idealizing some main characters, the adaptors managed to preserve the novel's charm and produced an impressive and profitable film. Moreover, examining MGM's localizing Chinese traditional family, it illustrates the phenomemon of infiltrating and merging of two cultures in intercultural adaptation as a general rule.Chapter Two examines how the Pacific war impacted the production of Dragon Seed and China Sky on screen as war effort. Under the influence of the Production Code Administration and the Office of War Information, the movie makers of MGM saw Dragon Seed as a"golden opportunity"to help win the war against Japanese aggression. Its film adaptation presents a unified and inspiring China deeply involved in the war against the fascist invasion, which enhances the political and instructional functions of motion pictures. The filmmakers of RKO transform Pearl Buck's sympathetic Japanese officer into a sinister militarist. Such a stereotypical Japanese image, prevailing in Hollywood in World War II, echoes the voice of most Americans irritated by Japanese attack on Peal Harbor. In line with the US government's diplomatic policy and the general political situation, the adaptors made desperate efforts to perfect the Chinese people's screen image and highlight their intimacy with American doctors. Reinterpreting the interracial story from a perspective basically different from that of Pearl Buck, the film once again witnesses political and ideological influence on film adaptation.Chapter Three evaluates the loose screen adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's Pavilion of Women by Luo Yan with recognizable trademarks of the early works by China's Fifth-Generation film directors. Various narrative strategies borrowed from the Fifth-Generation directors lose its inherent impacts due to the failure of mingling them with the story, which prevents Luo Yan from copying"National Allegory"successfully. The overemphasis put on interracial and extramarital love affairs weakens the filmmaker's concern for the characters'fate though she intends to recount the classical story about repressed individuals. Luo Yan fails to comment critically and profoundly on the negative side of traditional Chinese culture as what the Fifth Generation did. Resembling the Fifth Generation early films in narrative measures and intended purpose, Luo Yan's adaptation can be said as copycat allegory from conscious imitation.Exploring each adaptation's rewriting strategies and techniques and demonstrating each film's narrative features and visual style, this study argues that the specific strategies of Hollywood are motivated by and linked with the social political circumstances of their times. As a result, the dissertation divides the history of film adaptation of Buck's novels into three periods, which reveals the ideological control of American government as well as the adaptors'catering to audience and popular idea. The history of adapting Pearl Buck's novels witnesses the conflict and the communication between Chinese and American cultures, during which traditional Chinese culture in the original text is inevitably appropriated by western values.