Summary of Pearl S. Buck's My Several Worlds

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 My life has been split between two continents and two different eras. I am a creature instinctively domestic, but the age in which I was born combined with my writing talents to compel me to live deeply in home and family, as well as in the lives of many different peoples.

#2 I was born in the US, but my parents decided to send me to China at the age of three months to live with my grandparents. I grew up in Asia, and my own country became the dreamworld, fantastically beautiful, inhabited by a people I believed were entirely good.

#3 I grew up with the idea that America was the land of dreams, and I was shocked when I went to China and realized that the world around me was Asian. I learned about India early on, and shared the stories of its people with my friends.

#4 In the secret thoughts of the Chinese, the westerners were considered foreign enemies. The Americans were good, but the Europeans were bad. The Chinese and Asian allies were constantly fighting the imperial powers of the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822539914

IRB Media

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Insights on Pearl S. Buck's My Several Worlds

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My life has been split between two continents and two different eras. I am a creature instinctively domestic, but the age in which I was born combined with my writing talents to compel me to live deeply in home and family, as well as in the lives of many different peoples.

#2

I was born in the US, but my parents decided to send me to China at the age of three months to live with my grandparents. I grew up in Asia, and my own country became the dreamworld, fantastically beautiful, inhabited by a people I believed were entirely good.

#3

I grew up with the idea that America was the land of dreams, and I was shocked when I went to China and realized that the world around me was Asian. I learned about India early on, and shared the stories of its people with my friends.

#4

In the secret thoughts of the Chinese, the westerners were considered foreign enemies. The Americans were good, but the Europeans were bad. The Chinese and Asian allies were constantly fighting the imperial powers of the West.

#5

My parents had taken in a Chinese girl named Ts’ai Yün, or Beautiful Cloud, when my mother was called to the house of a Chinese family head who was dying. His wife had asked my mother to take care of their daughter, who was given to my parents for adoption.

#6

I loved the children I grew up with, and I enjoyed them as much as I did my sisters. The eldest two were nearly my age, and we had wonderful playtimes when they came to visit us or we went to visit them in their home some miles away.

#7

The Chinese method of conquering enemies was to isolate them and make them live a life of luxury. The Manchus were eventually persuaded to move into palaces and begin enjoying themselves, and as they ate and drank more, the Chinese were pleased.

#8

I grew up in a double world. When I was with the Chinese, I was Chinese, and when I was with the American, I shut the door between.

#9

I had a richly humanistic relationship with the Chinese world, and it was this world that I was forced to navigate as a child. I grew up knowing that nothing was private in that world, and that the word for secret also meant unlawful.

#10

I had been taught that a soldier is not a man, in the civilized sense of the word. He is separated from the laws of life and home, and it is well for a girl child to run fast if he comes near.

#11

The Chinese dynasty lived longer than it might have otherwise because the Manchu rulers were careful not to disturb the customs of the Chinese. The main duty of the officials in the counties was to see that every family continued free to live its life, interfering only when some injustice was done.

#12

The Chinese had a different approach to child psychology than the Western world. They believed that there is an age for learning each law of life, and to teach a child too young was to wear out the teacher and frustrate the child.

#13

In the Chinese world, the object of education was not only mental accomplishment, but moral character as well. The teachers made us believe that a well-educated person was well-bred and had moral integrity as a matter of course.

#14

My parents had a lot of work to do, but they were still able to find time to care for me and my sister. We had lessons, but they were not taught in a Chinese school. We played together, and I was a happy child.

#15

I had a lot of places in my mind as a child. I loved the outdoors, and I loved going under the verandas of my whitewashed brick bungalow, which was honeycombed with places that I loved. I kept my pet pheasants under the verandas, and watched the tiny thimbles of tawny down pick their way out from the pale brown eggs.

#16

The Chinese lost the Opium Wars, and after each loss, the price was heavy. Treaty ports were yielded, the rights of trade and commerce were demanded and given, and high indemnities had to be paid. The story can be read in any good history of China.

#17

I grew up in a missionary family, and I saw the joy and simplicity that can be achieved when you live without prejudice. I learned early on that it is better to learn about the inevitable depths of sorrow and death, because then they take their place in life and you are not afraid.

#18

The food in China was simple, but it was always good. In the morning, except in the summer, we had oranges, loquats, apricots, and lichees. When the peaches ripened, we were well into summer.

#19

My parents worked hard, and they expected