Pearl of China: a novel by Anchee Min

Author:Anchee Min
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Pearl S, Buck, Biographical, Biographical fiction, Asia, Fiction, Literary, China - History - 20th century, China, Historical, Female friendship, Americans - China, Americans, Friendship in children, General, Women novelists, History
ISBN: 9781596916975
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2010-03-30T00:37:56+00:00

CHAPTER 19

I accepted Dick Lin's offer to be the editor of his magazine. I made up my mind to move to Shanghai for good.

Pearl was devastated.

A month before I left, Hsu Chih-mo paid me a visit. He pleaded with me to save his relationship with Pearl. "She fell apart after learning about your departure. She told me that she would view me as an enemy if I continued to visit her. She's engaged in a war with me."

I refused to talk to Hsu Chih-mo. I had done enough for him.

Confused, he said, "I'll come back when you are in a better mood."

After he left, I couldn't escape the sound of his voice praising Pearl. "Pearl and I are soul mates!" "The Good Earth is like no other novel I have ever read. It's a masterpiece!" "It takes a humanitarian to be a good novelist." "She denied that love has passed between us!"

Before I could say hello to Shanghai and to Dick Lin, I knew that I must settle my past accounts and say good-bye to Nanking. Yet the shadows of Pearl Buck and Hsu Chih-mo followed close upon me.

Dick promised me independence. He said that he would always be there for me if I needed him.

"You are coming to Shanghai," he said in his letters, "and that is all that counts."

Dick was confident that I would grow to love him.

I warned him that I was taking advantage of him.

"You don't owe me anything" was his response.

Dick told me that Shanghai had been the red cradle ever since the Communist Party had been created in 1921. Although the party was still considered a guerrilla group, it was becoming the major opposition force against the ruling nationalist government. Dick played an important role in the party. He had become Mao Tse-tung's chief adviser and he ran the party's bureau of propaganda.

I was not terribly interested in the new world Dick described. I didn't care whether or not the Communists would win China. What I cared about was having a place in Shanghai where I could tend to my wounds and try to start my life again. Dick made it convenient.

"You used to be a tiny creek and now you are part of an ocean." Dick was as happy as a goalie after catching a ball.

The day of my departure was approaching. I wasn't living a lie, yet I wasn't living truthfully either. Pearl and Hsu Chih-mo had called a cease-fire and had finally become lovers. I took credit because I had helped. My home was their love nest. There, they were able to escape the prying eyes of the public. But I was wrong about myself. I was consumed by envy and jealousy.

Pearl knew me too well to feel comfortable with the situation. She even refused to show up when Hsu Chih-mo gave me a farewell dinner. On the one hand, I was comforted by the fact that Hsu Chih-mo didn't know that I was in love with him. On the other, I suffered when he shared with me his feelings for my friend.

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