By day three, starting our day with a faux tea ceremony has become tradition. Today, we tasted black tea with a hefty amount of creamer. (The consensus was that yesterday’s jasmine tea was too bitter.) While sipping our tea, we watched the movie The Good Earth, a film based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Pearl S. Buck, as a preface to our trip to the Pearl S. Buck House. After finishing the tale of one man’s struggle, triumph, and relationship with land in a rural Chinese village in the 20th century, we ate an incredibly early lunch before leaving campus for our trip to the historical landmark.
After a lengthy bus ride to Perkasie, Pennsylvania, we arrived at the house. We were greeted with the beautiful 19th century architecture of Pearl Buck’s stone house and wood barn, both fully functional at one point, and a Welcome Center where our tour began. Split into two groups of 10, we made our way from the Welcome Center to the house where writer, Nobel Prize winner, and social justice activist Pearl Buck lived for 40 years of her life, all the way up to her death in 1973. (And no, there is no correlation between her last name and the House’s location in Bucks County!)
In short, Buck was the child of two American missionaries and spent her childhood living in the Jiangsu Province of China. She is most famous for writing the novel The Good Earth, which was able to provide a pioneering glimpse into rural Chinese life for Western countries.
The house itself was immaculately preserved, and it was fascinating to observe the Asian influence on the house’s furnishing, as well as Buck’s works. Everything from Korean chess sets to Chinese ironwork was present. We made our way through the entirety of the first floor, observing everything from Buck’s kitchen to her office, where redacted government documents addressing her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement were neatly sprawled on top of her simple wooden desk.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we started our trek back without touring the upper level of the house, but all was well after a quick stop in the gift shop. On our ride back, we cracked open the snacks and got some much-needed rest after the first half of our Intensive Learning journey was complete.