VZCZCXRO6216
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHGH #0459 3020645
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 280645Z OCT 08
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7274
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2226
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU PRIORITY 1496
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU PRIORITY 1467
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG PRIORITY 1653
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG PRIORITY 1488
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY 0228
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE USD FAS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 7867

UNCLAS SHANGHAI 000459 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR LOI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SCUL KPAO OIIP PREL EAGR CH
SUBJECT: READING PEARL BUCK IN ZHENJIANG 
 
REF: (06) SHANGHAI 7027 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Zhenjiang, a city of one million at the junction 
of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, proudly proclaims its 
connection to Pearl S. Buck, author of "The Good Earth" and 1938 
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.   Once unwelcome in 
China, Buck is now praised as a bridge between cultures. 
Instead of seeing her as a reactionary, Chinese fans worry that 
she doesn't get the attention she deserves in the United States. 
  On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the formal establishment 
of U.S.-China relations, interest in this and other historical 
links, including Buck's agronomist husband, opens the door to 
renewed cultural connections.   End summary 
 
¶2. As Pearl Buck's childhood and early adult home town, 
Zhenjiang is actively promoting the author's legacy, most 
recently with a weekend-long conference October 18-19 in 
commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Buck's Nobel Prize. 
The Consul General was a featured speaker at the event, which 
attracted 100 participants, including several Buck family 
members from the United States and the board and executive staff 
of the Pearl S. Buck International foundation in Pennsylvania. 
 
¶3. The conference and related opening of a Pearl S. Buck museum 
next to the restored family home is the latest signal of strong 
interest in this U.S. connection after earlier decades when the 
Chinese Government banned her books and denied her a visa.  In 
2002 the city celebrated the 110th anniversary of her birth, 
three years renaming its public park "Pearl Square" and 
unveiling a monument at the Zhenjiang No.2 high school where 
Buck studied and later taught.   The newly opened museum shows 
Buck studying the Chinese classics and calls her a "daughter of 
Zhenjiang". 
 
¶4. Zhenjiang goes out of its way to make Consulate visitors 
welcome, arranging for the CG and PAO to tour the house, museum, 
and school, where they met with students who had traveled to the 
United States last winter on a program funded by Pearl S. Buck 
International.   Vice-Mayor Chen Jianshe hosted a dinner for the 
Consulate visitors, while FY-04 International Visitor Leadership 
Program alum Xu Bisheng, an urban planning official, spoke with 
enthusiasm of Chicago's urban planning and an upcoming meeting 
in Zhenjiang of the Commerce Department-supported American 
Planning Association. 
 
¶5.  Comment:   Zhenjiang's fervor for its long-ago American 
"daughter" points to possibilities for the upcoming celebrations 
of the 30th anniversary of U.S.-China relations.  One example 
surfaced on the margins of the conference, where the son of the 
author's first husband, agronomist John Lossing Buck, described 
a surge in contacts from China about his father's research and 
historical land survey data, recently re-discovered at Nanjing 
Agricultural University.  Conference speaker Amb. Chen Yonglong, 
vice president of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign 
Affairs and former PRC ambassador to Israel and Jordan, linked 
the anniversary to Pearl Buck in his remarks and encouraged the 
pursuit of such connections as our countries commemorate 30 
years of restored diplomatic relations. 
 
CAMP