Pearl Buck, an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is well known for her historical novels set in China. The House of Earth trilogy is Pearl Buck’s best-known work, but I would like to commemorate one of her lesser-known works, which is entitled Peony. I not only enjoyed this book’s story, but I also learned an aspect of Jewish history that I did not realize existed. According to archeological evidence, some Jewish people resided and assimilated in China for many centuries.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of this obscure time in Jewish history*
Jewish History in China
*Source for explanatory notes: Wikipedia-History of the Jews in China
Peony is a story of a Chinese bondmaid that takes place in the 1850s. She works for the prominent Ezra Ben Israel’s family. She was raised with Ezra Ben’s son David and was secretly in love with him. Ezra Ben Israel had a Jewish father and Chinese mother. He half-heartedly followed the Jewish religious traditions, and his wife Madame Ezra staunchly followed these traditions. Madame Ezra demanded that David marry Leah the daughter of the Rabbi, but David was secretly in love with Keuilan the daughter of his father’s business partner. Although Peony loved David, she did not hope to marry him. She was not Jewish, and not part of a prominent Chinese family. Which of these three young women will David marry? If David does not choose Peony, what kind of life will she have to accept? Read this forgotten love story and learn what happens to each of these characters.
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