THE PEARL BUCK PROGRAM

After 50 years of latency, this PPX program revives the cultural legacy of the China-born American novelist and Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes winner, Pearl S Buck.

The PPX Pearl Buck Program shall create social contexts for meaningful exchange between the people of the US and China by harvesting from Pearl Buck’s rich and extensive body of work.

The end goal of this program is to revive and extend Pearl Buck's legacy - as the premier American cultural ambassador to China - for Chinese audiences to expand their understanding of the US and Americans.

The Program Summary

Through Pearl Buck’s stories, interviews, educational programs, books, photographs, content, permanent museum exhibits, touring exhibits and coordinated cross-promotional outreach within China with local cultural organizations, The Pearl Buck Program will foster a deepening understanding, respect and friendship between the people of China and Americans living in China.

Program Scope of Deliverables

PPX in Partnership with PSBI shall:

- Establish three permanent Pearl Buck Exhibits at museums in China

- Produce a Touring Pearl Buck Exhibit

- Translate into Mandarin and facilitate the distribution of Pearl Buck’s Pulitzer Prize winning

book, My Several Worlds

- Extend PSBI’s Pearl Buck Educational Program into the Lushan School

- Provide sponsorships for disadvantaged teens for their high school education by pairing

them with sponsor penpals

- Cross-promote the events in partnership with local cultural organizations in China, and

make available and syndicate selected content to CCTV and Chinese Print and Media.

Brief History of Pearl Buck

Pearl Buck wrote award-winning fiction based in Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming well-known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and women’s rights, the underprivileged, disabled, discriminated and on mixed-race adoption.

Buck is best known for The Good Earth, a 1931 US best-selling novel. In 1932 she was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for the same. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for her “rich and truly epic descriptions of life in China" and for her "masterpieces," two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents in China.

Until 1934, Buck spent her life in Zhenjiang with her parents, and in Anhui and Nanjing, with her first husband, John Lossing Buck. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang. It was during one of these annual pilgrimages in 1922 that young Pearl decided to dedicate herself to life as a writer.

Program Strategic Objectives

The Program has 2 simultaneous, parallel objective plans to achieve the goal:

Plan 1 Objective - Extending and Producing the Pearl Buck Educational Sponsorship Program in Lushan and Jiangxi Schools.

Proven History

Pearl Buck’s first home was in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province. PSBI is already producing a highly successful Pearl Buck Educational Program at the Chongshi Girl’s School in Zhenjiang where her legacy carries on - See the PSBI Brochure.

It is anticipated that CCTV will tell the Pearl Buck story their way, while PPX’s Pearl Buck Program will tell the story through an American perspective, highlighting ethics like hard work, humanitarianism and collaboration.

The Pearl Buck Educational Sponsorship Program

As part of this program, PPX and PSBI, are providing sponsorships to improve the education quality and opportunities for underprivileged Chinese students. The Pearl Buck Sponsorship Program enables foreign sponsors to become penpals with students participating in the program, allowing them to gift and subsidize the student’s high school education. This program extends Pearl Buck’s legacy of helping others.

Documentary and Educational Video

PPX shall collaboratively produce a Pearl Buck Documentary and Educational Video.

PPX has been granted the rights and access to the robust PSBI Archives of photos, books, letters, maps, news clippings and more. In concert with The Pearl Buck Museum Director and Head Curator, Samantha Friese, PPX is researching the PSBI archives to collaboratively create original materials to feature in a short video, Pearl Buck in China, to highlight the museum exhibits and the school programs.

The video shall be published in Mandarin and English.

Usage of Video

Plan 1 will utilize this video as historical materials for students. Plan 2 will utilize the video as part of permanent Pearl Buck Museum exhibits. The video will also be shown as part of The Pearl Buck Exhibit Tour in other locations, primarily in The Pearl Buck Museums in China, but also in other museums in cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan.

Clips from the video will be made available to CCTV and other outlets in China to write articles about, post, air, stream and distribute. For such, an electronic press kit (EPK) will be provided and hosted on peopletopeopleexchange.org.

PPX University Support

PPX has developed partnerships which provide access to Jiangsu University film students as interns - with the guidance of their instructors - to help with research videography.

Additional Video Interviews

Additional Pearl Buck video material will include interviews with Pearl Buck descendants, those creating the museum program and with people of China sharing about why Pearl Buck’s voice is important today. PPX will gather this footage.

This interview footage is to be included in the documentary and to appear on PPX’s website in the EPK. The video material will also be featured in The Pearl Buck Museums, PSB Tour Exhibits and on media outlets (e.g. CCTV) to be syndicated to local cultural organizations for distribution.

Video Story-telling Style

There are many styles of documentary filmmaking, but one of the most well-regarded is that of the award-winning Ken Burns. His use of still images in particular that the film world named an entire visual style after him. The Ken Burns Effect is a pan or zoom across a still image.

For the PSB photographs, PPX will utilize the Ken Burns Effect method to pan and zoom in post-production across a still photograph. It adds the illusion of movement, giving still imagery the animation of a video clip. The effect also lends a visual flow to the piece and can be used to draw attention to a particular subject or detail within the image.

There are several examples of the Ken Burns effect in this clip from The Civil War, which originally aired on PBS. Pay attention to the way the panning and zooming adds dynamic movement and a sense of immersion to what would otherwise be static photos.

Translation and Distribution of Pearl Buck Books

PPX will translate Pearl Buck’s best-selling autobiography, My Several Worlds.. Translations will be made available for print and in digital formats. Other book translations will be determined in collaboration with PSBI.

PPX will work with interested third parties, including Edgar Walsh - Pearl Buck’s son - his literary agent, and the Zhenjiang Pearl Buck Institute, at Jiangsu University, to acquire additional funding for these formats.

PPX and PSBI will facilitate distribution of these books through local cultural organizations, schools and the people in China.

There are 77 Pearl Buck Books results sold on Barnes and Noble in the US yet none of her books have been translated into Mandarin - so her story is unknown in China.

Plan 2 Objective - Establishing and Launching the Pearl Buck Museum Exhibits and Tour

Working Title for Lushan Museum Exhibit and Opening Event: “Pearl Buck - Coming Home to Mt. Lushan, China”

Exhibit Overview

This exhibit will use Pearl Buck’s descriptions - and those of others who lived in Kuling - to illuminate the American and Chinese friendship of the early 20th century. Lushan and its importance to the Americans that lived there will be the common theme throughout the exhibit. PPX is establishing two new permanent exhibits about “Pearl Buck Coming Home to Mt. Lushan” as a Daughter of China at the existing Lushan and Zhenjiang museum locations in two of Pearl's hometowns.

Pearl Buck’s Home Locations as Exhibit Venues

A central theme here is connecting the US home and PSBI Foundation with multiple homes and institutions in China that honor Pearl's legacy as a bridge between China and America. PPX recognizes that building a bridge between these organizations has never been done. We are creating the bridge to Zhenjiang and Lushan Buck homes and museums to share our first exhibits.

In a future Program, PPX will connect Buck's home at Nanjing University (which was beautifully restored in 2007) and her home in Suzhou, Anhui at a future date.

Bilingual Exhibit - Mandarin and English

- Exhibit will use direct quotes from original sources and published and unpublished from Pearl Buck, her sister Grace, Abasalom Sydenstricker, Carie Sydenstricker, Theodore Harris, Hilary Spurling, etc

- Photography - Current and Archival

- High quality photographs of essential story components will be sourced from the archives and paired with direct quotes from Pearl Buck’s works.

- Images dating back to the early 1900s from PSBI Museum and the Kuling American School Community will be featured. Subjects include: the local Grand Canal boats from Huai’an, the British steamer journey from Zhenjiang down the Yangtze River to Jiujiang City, the “Thousand Steps” and Chinese sedan chair carriers, the current PSB Lushan stone villa that Carie Buck (mother of Pearl) rebuilt in as a surprise for her daughters in 1916, Absalom’s 1931 headstone, and more.

Stories

PPX shall draw from these stories to create thematic sections of the Pearl Coming Home exhibit:

- The Natural Side of Lushan

- Kuling Our Home - Making America in China

- Carrie Sydenstricker: The Exile Experience

- Dr. Sai: The Fighting Angel

- Pearl Buck and Mrs. Lu

- Pearl Buck and Wang Amah

- Pearl Buck and Mr. Kung

- Grace Sydenstricker - The First Ascent of the Thousand Steps - 1897

• -The Buck Flower Garden and Lushan Wildflower Gathering

Exhibit Format

This exhibit will be presented in large printed poster and digital formats, in order to make size and shipping cost effective.

Target Audience

The target audience for this exhibition is multifaceted. PPX and PSBI plan to target several native Chinese in Pearl Buck “hometowns" as well as Chinese throughout China of all ages that may not know about the impact of the American and Chinese friendships in Lushan at the turn of the 20th Century. Here is the demographic breakdown of who we plan on reaching:

- Seniors over 62 years of age

- Adults ages 30-50

- Young adults and children ages 16-29

Exhibit Locations

For this Program PPX has or will partner with museums in:

- Lushan City Museum

- Lushan Pearl Buck Museum - currently being built

- Zhenjiang at the Pearl Buck Institute

- Wuhan at the Roots Family House

- Beijing - TBD

• Permanent Exhibit Locations

- Lushan City Museum

- Zhenjiang Pearl Buck Institute

- Wuhan - the Roots Family House

Exhibit Tour Locations

- Wuhan

- Beijing

Exhibit Tour Working Title

"Pearl Buck - Coming Home to Mt. Lushan"

Exhibit Tour Roles

PPX will design and produce a Pearl Buck Touring Exhibit, in partnership with PSBI, to be able to take the Exhibit anywhere in China.

Tour Extension Option

To extend the Tour to encompass other locations besides these 5 locations shall require an additional budget and funding.

Museum Launch Event in Lushan

The Lushan School shall have students give presentations at the Lushan City Museum Pearl Buck Exhibit opening event. Some of those presentations may be student readings of their essays written for the Lushan School Pearl Buck Essay Contest. Awards will be given to the students by the school and ideal for speeches to be given by the teachers and museum curators.

Museum Tour Guides

PPX intends to partner with Jiangsu University to establish a student intern program, wherein the students would learn the Pearl Buck Exhibit materials and get trained by PPX to lead the tours and presentations at the museum locations.

Exhibit Key Personnel

- Samantha Friese, Head Curator, PSBI

- Stephanie Saveriano, International Programs Director, PSBI

- Steve Harnsberger, President, PPX

- Michael Leifer, Executive Director, PPX

- Chen Hui, Translator and Manager of The Lushan School Educational Program

- Yuan Yong, Vice Mayor, Lushan

Program Anticipated Impact

This program will build meaningful understanding, relationships and trust amongst people from the US and China.  PPX shall use comprehensive tracking, monitoring and analysis, which will be defined after discussions with the US State Department Mission China.