Pearl S. Buck: A Foreigner in China

by Katharine Mitchell
The Chinese port city of Zhenjiang is situated on the Yangtze River, just west of Shanghai. It is small by Chinese standards: population 2.9 million. A scattering of ancient Buddhist temples, well-kept parks and small mountains hedge the city's new commercial district, which is a block of brightly lit chain stores, two-story McDonald's and colossal shopping malls. Enormous red balloons shaped like traditional Chinese lanterns hover over shop entrances, advertising cheap goods and sales, while blind erhu players busk on street corners, crooning Beijing opera or Taiwanese p...