Assimilation vs Seperation in Peony

"They are a strange people, not like ours. They are a sorrowful people, and they worship a cruel god" - Kung Chen (138)

A strong theme in Pearl S. Buck's novel Peony is the value of assimilating into a foreign culture in which you are living as compared to keeping your people's own values and customs. In the novel the main family are wealthy Jews living in Kaifeng, China. Unlike their brethren in Europe these Jewish communities are completely safe and accepted by the Chinese society. Without a monotheistic culture the idea of worshiping a different god is not well understood but not offensive to Chinese society. Instead, the Jews are seen a strange people following a harsh and invisible God, but they are still widely considered to be "good people" by the Chinese.

The arrival of Jews in Kaifeng is described as having been a steady stream, starting with traders and merchants. Later, Jews would come in larger numbers fleeing persecution. According to the novel, "The Chinese in the city viewed these modest invasions with tolerant eyes. They were a clever people, these Jews, full of energy and wit" (Buck 7). Essentially the Jews were accepted into Chinese cities for the same reason they were invited to live in the Ottoman Empire following the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain: they could read, write, and do math. However, despite the family's wealth and the great tolerance of the Chinese, the matriarch of the family is extraordinarily concerned about losing the traditions of her people and falling into Chinese heathenism. She frequently yearns to return to the Promised Land, but the men in her family do not see any reason to leave China, which is their home.

Madame Ezra is convinced that the Chinese are being kind to destroy Jewish culture and lead to assimilation without violence. This brings up a classic point in minority communities: to what level is it extent is it possible to integrate into a community without giving up unique cultural values? According to Madame Ezra, "Because the Chinese have not murdered us, does that mean they are not destroying us...there is an unchangeable difference between them and us. We are the children of the true God, and they are heathen. They worship images of clay" (68). However, the Jews were so safe in China that the children of the Jewish community did not understand the persecution which their people were facing until a trader came back with a story of Jews being massacred in the West.

The narrator describes that the trader could not, "Make this young David understand, who had all his life lived in safety and peace? What ancient curse was upon their people elsewhere that did not hold under these Eastern skies?"; At news of the massacre Ezra states, "As long as we live here, we are safe (78). It is in many ways difficult to imagine Madame Ezra's chagrin at a continuing life amongst the Chinese even if it requires intermarriage; further, it does not seem it would be particularly difficult for trade caravans to return with Jews fleeing violence in order to keep the community strong. However, even without persecution the Jewish community continued to shrink, as Madame Ezra saw it, "It was, of course, easier to sink into becoming a Chinese, easier to take on easygoing godless ways, than it was to remain a Jew (112). This gives a better idea of her issues with living in China, as she does not think that the Jews can contain morality in a heathen society (of course, Jews had been doing so for thousands of years.)

One of the defining features of Jewish and Chinese interactions in the novel is a mutual ignorance of closely held customs. While David studies both Confucius and the Torah, his mother has little understanding of the Chinese lifestyle, and the Chinese know very little about their Jewish neighbors other than that they are foreigners. When David wants to marry a Chinese girl who father explains his feelings about his daughter marrying a foreigner, "When foreigners come into a nation, the best way is to make them no longer foreign. That is to say, let us marry our young together and let there be children. War is costly, love is cheap (102). His daughter feels the same way, hoping she can save David from the fate of his people, "She would take him away from the dark, sorrowful people to whom he had been born and bring him into the pleasant sunshine in which her people lived. He would forget death and learn to love life" (103). What is strange about these statements is that despite a lack of cultural understanding Madame Ezra and the Chinese seem to feel the same way: their lives would be better, or at least easier, if they were Chinese. Madame Ezra's faith is the only obstacle to her assimilation.

It is difficult to know where the rest of this novel will go in terms of this theme. It is particularly interesting to compare this to America in the early 20th century when there were masses of unassimilated immigrants in the country, including Jews and Catholics. Both natives and immigrants had trouble deciding how to handle the situation. While many public schools taught in German even until the First World War, increasing action with government agents made the English language particularly necessary. In the case of the Jews of Kaifeng, it seems that being able to write in both Hebrew and Chinese would contain extraordinary benefits in terms of trade, especially as knowing Hebrew would make it easier to learn Arabic and further increase ones ability for communication. It seems that if life was so much better in China but they were still a dying people they should have told other Jews they were in contact with to come to China.


S., Buck, Pearl. Peony (Oriental Novels of Pearl S. Buck Series). London: Moyer Bell, 2004. Print.