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Peony

by Pearl S. Buck (New York: Bloch Publishing/Biblio Press, 1948)

Introduction

A Jewish community was established centuries ago in Kaifeng, China. This community survived for generations. This community of foreigners—foreign both as to ancestry and religion—was never persecuted in China. Jewish descendants still exist in China, but many are not aware of their Jewish ancestry or are somewhat unfamiliar with their ancestors’ religion and traditions. These Jews were eventually accepted as Chinese, and they saw themselves as merely Chinese.

Summary

This is a story of the small Jewish community in Kaifeng, China. The narrative is from the eyes of Peony, a young Chinese bondsmaid in the house of Jews. The Jews are wealthy merchants, and though they embrace most of China and its traditions, they still consider themselves Jews and foreigners in a foreign land far from the land of their ancestors, Israel. The Chinese respect these foreigners and show great tolerance for their strange religion. They view the Jews as hard workers and welcome them in. The Jewish community struggles to remain pure (marry only Jews) and remember and respect their religion. The father, Ezra, is half Chinese. The only son wants to marry a Chinese woman. Both father and son identify more with being Chinese than being Jewish. And neither wants to leave China to return to their ancestors’ promised land, even if they could. They are mindful that Jews in other countries have been persecuted, but that they have been well treated in China.

Excerpts from pages 102, 110-111

(Peony, a servant in the house of the Jews, talks with Kung Chen, a wealthy neighbor who does business with the Jewish family and whose daughter is admired by the Jewish family’s son.)

“Sir, have you hatred against the foreigners?”

. . . “Why should I hate anyone?” he asked in a surprise. . . . “To hate another human being is to take a worm into one’s own vitals. It consumes life.” . . .

“Would you give your daughter to a foreign house?” she asked.. . .

“When foreigners come into a nation, the best way is to make them no longer foreign. That is to say, let us marry our young together and let there be children. War is costly, love is cheap.”

(When Kung Chen discusses the possible marriage proposal with his wife, she displays her ignorance of the Jewish foreigners.)

“I am about to have another proposal for our Little Three,” Kung Chen said.

“Who wants her now?” Madame Kung asked. …

“The foreigner Ezra is considering her for his son, David,” Kung Chen said.

Madame Kung looked indignant. “Shall we consider him?” she asked.

Kung Chen replied in a mild voice, “I think so. They are very rich and Ezra and I have planned a new contract. There is only the one son, and Little Three will not have to contend with other sons’ wives.”

“But a foreigner!” she objected.

“Have you ever seen them?” Kung Chen asked.

Madame Kung shook her head. “I have heard about them,” she said. “They have high noses and big eyes. I do not want a grandson with a big nose and big eyes.”

“Little Three’s nose is almost too small,” Kung Chen said tolerantly. “Moreover, you know our Chinese blood always smooths away extremes. By the next generation the children will look Chinese.”

“I hear the foreigners are very fierce,” Madame Kung objected.

“Fierce?” Kung Chen repeated.

“They have religious fever,” Madame Kung said. “They will not eat this and that, and they pray every day and they have no god that can be seen but they fear him very much and they say our gods are false. All this is uncomfortable.” . . .

“Aside from business,” Kung Chen said with patience, “I do not believe in separating people into different kinds. All human beings have noses, eyes, arms, legs, hearts, stomachs, and so far as I have been able to learn, we all reproduce in the same fashion.”

Madame Kung was interested when he mentioned reproduction. “I have heard that foreigners open their stomachs and take their children out of a hole they have there,” she said.

“It is not true,” Kung Chen replied.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“My friend Ezra and I attend the same bath house and he is made as I am, except that he has much hair on his body.” . . .

“When I receive the proposal,” he corrected himself, “I shall accept it?” . . .“We have so many girls,” she murmured and yawned. . .

Questions and Discussion

What does Kung Chen mean when he says, “To hate another human being is to take a worm into one’s own vitals. It consumes life.”? How does intolerance and hatred hurt the person feeling these emotions?

Madame Kung, like many in the world, bases her opinions of others on second hand information, which is often incorrect. How can we overcome this tendency to believe what others tell us when we do not have first-hand knowledge?

Kung Chen wisely states that the best way to make foreigners no longer foreign is for them to intermarry and produce children of mixed backgrounds. Does this mean that for foreigners to be accepted in a new society that they must assimilate with the majority? Is a certain amount of assimilation necessary for peaceful workings between cultures living together, or can peaceful co-existence exist with no assimilation whatsoever?