The Chinese As The "Other" In The Good Earth

Pearl S. Buck created many novels with China, especially villages in China, as the subject. The writer, who was born in the United States and grew up in China, was determined to undertake the mission of introducing both China and Chinese to the Westerns through writing literary works for she believed that she had a deep understanding of Chinese while she lived and communicated with Chinese people at different levels. However, her identity as a Westerner and her education in the United States to some degree prevented her from going beyond the Westerners’ prejudices and views of Chinese. Her conflicting ideas of China and Chinese are typically embodied in her novel The Good Earth.This thesis, applying Daniel-Henry Pageaux’s theory of the "Other" to the interpretation of the amiable Other and ideological Other in The Good Earth, examines the close and deep connections between Buck’s double identities and her Chinese characters as "Others" in The Good Earth, and make positive comments about what she did in helping the Westerners build up a positive image of Chinese. And this thesis also points out that some Chinese characters in The Good Earth reflect the Chinese stereotypes which are inscribed in the minds of the Westerners and which demonstrates the cultural and political positions of the Western colonialists.