"Pearl S Buck": Quilt Art by Rebekka Seigel

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore, they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation."

I chose Pearl to be my twelfth honoree initially because I wanted someone literary for the group, but after doing the research I came to admire Pearl far less for her writing and much more for her sense of social responsibility. Pearl’s quilt has two different halves just like her life. She was raised in China, but lived all of her adult life in America. She took it upon herself to explain Asian culture to Americans who at the time knew very little about the ways of China. Her mother had impressed upon her the greatness of the promise that America represented to the rest of the world. When Pearl eventually settled here and found that promise lacking in the areas of racial equality, women’s rights, treatment of the mentally retarded and acceptance of the children born of Asian women and American servicemen, she used her skills as a writer to bring light to these issues in the hopes of changing attitudes.

The red half of the quilt represents China and the green represents America. The black appliqués in each half reflect the folk art indigenous to each culture. Each one of Pearl’s dress blocks represents an issue of importance to her in her life. The issue is written in both English and Chinese. The white strips surrounding each block list the books that she wrote with that issue as a subject.

I called on the language skills of the owners of my favorite Chinese restaurant for the Chinese translations.