Quest For Self By Way Of The Other

As the daughter of an American Presbyterian Missionary in China, and later as a most powerful exponent of West-China Dialogue in her times, Pearl S. Buck has been remembered and discussed as the translator of the image of China to the West. Criticism on her novels about China has been mostly centered on the role that she played in cross-cultural communication, i.e., to what extent, Pearl Buck has represented the true image of China as it was, or whether she has constructed the image of China as the Other that is equal to western Self. With the discussion of Cultural Identity catching ever greater attention in cross-cultural issues, research on Pearl Buck has made a turn towards the Identity of herself from the traditional disputing over her image of China.Inspired by such shift of focus, this thesis tries to carry on the discussion of Pearl Buck's cultural identity, analyzes her western Self image (western missionary image in particular) in relation with the Chinese Other, understands Pearl Buck as an observer of Self by way of the Other, and concludes that she has been undergoing the quest of Self with two questions "Who I am" and "Who I am supposed to be". The significance of China for her lies in that it is "China the Other" that enables her quest for Christian Self. Thus, Pearl Buck's ultimate value is Self-oriented.Five parts contribute to probe into Pearl Buck's quest for Self by way of the Other.The Introduction consists of three parts: A. a brief summary of the previous discussions on Pearl Buck's Image of China according to the collected materials to the most ability of this author; B. a clear presentation of the writing purpose of this thesis, that is, to understand Pearl Buck as the observer of Self by way of the Other; C. an indispensable explanation of the particular meaning of "Self/Other" in this thesis, which chiefly refers to: the Other is valued as the equal counterpart to Self, it provides another vantage to examine Self and to quest for a better Self. To conclude as well as to invite the coming chapters, a sketch of the thesis will be made at the end of Introduction.In Chapter One, an analysis of Pearl Buck's cultural identity comes first and foremost. The conclusion that "China as the Present Other versus America as the Absent Self justifies Pearl Buck as a westerner who could rid herself partly of western Self-centrism; furthermore, it qualifies her as the very observer of western Self. The prerequisite is the detachment from Self by shifting into Other's cultural context; the process is the discovery of "Who I am" in relation with the Other, and the purpose is the quest for "Who I am Supposed to be".Chapter Two and Chapter Three are the main body of my argumentation, in which, Pearl Buck's two books will be taken as the cases, that is, the biography for her missionary father Andrew in China—Fighting Angel, and the other is a typical novel about West-China confluence—Pavilion of Women. In Chapter Two, the argument focuses on the following two aspects: A. Self Images of the two missionaries: Pearl Buck's father is summarized as a fighter of God, "singleness" to the Only One True Lord is the driving force of his life meanwhile his exclusiveness to the Other civilizations and religions is explained, whereas Andre in the novel is idealized as a fighter of humankind whose inclusiveness to different religions and universal love to different peoples contribute to his effective communication with Chinese; B. the significance of the two missionaries: to understand Pearl Buck's father as the very epitome of the then American self-assured role of the Savior of the Orient, and to interpret Andre as Pearl Buck's spokesperson of mutual tolerance and cultural confluence. Based on the contrasting Self images in relation with the Other, chapter Three, in a further step, probes into the image of the Other as mirror of Self. In this part, the argument centers around four aspects: image of China, image of Chinese, image of Chinese religions, approach to the Other. A comparative study will be made around the four aspects, that is, one's image of China as religious frontier to expand versus one's image of China as part of the world to understand; one's image of the Chinese as heathen to convert versus one's image as brotherhood to communicate; one's image of Chinese religions as imitation of Christianity versus one's belief in the co-existence of religious difference; one's monologue approach towards the Chinese versus one's dialogue with the Chinese.In Conclusion, Pearl Buck the observer of Self would be observed in a possibly all-round way, and a safe conclusion will be made that, as the ultimate value of Pearl Buck is Self-oriented, China is the forever Other providing the way to observe Self.