www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us AMERICAN ORIENTALISM: CULTURE AND CRISES, IN PEARL S BUCK’S, “EAST WIND: WEST WIND & KINFOLK” AMBRI SHUKLA 1 & SHUCHI SRIVASTAVA 2 1 Research Scholar, Humanities and Social Sciences, MANIT, Bhopal, India 2 Associate Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, MANIT, Bhopal, India ABSTRACT Pearl S Buck wrote more than eighty five novels. Her most of the works contain an interaction or clash between two different cultures. Two novels, East Wind: West Wind and Kinfolk, both depicting the crises and culture, have been chosen for this paper. During seventeen century, American missionaries brought to China a belief in the cultural and racial superiority of American civilization, and orientalist lens through which to view China. Buck’s novels highlight the impact of American culture on Chinese people. The paper tries to analyze • The two major female characters in East Wind: West Wind, one Chinese and other American, and how both are in conflict with two different cultures. • The dilemma faced by many Asian – Americans who are involved in attempt to craft an identity out of their unusual hybrid experience in Kinfolk KEYWORDS: America, China, Culture, Identity INTRODUCTION American Orientalism from the turn of the century through the 1920s projects a distorted image of Chinese as primitive, slavish, exotic, manipulative, and amoral while American nationalism views its own population as modern, free, civilized, and trustworthy. Though, Arthur H Smith’s, Chinese Characteristics (1894), was the most widely read and influential work written about China by any American in the nineteenth century, Pearl s Buck, was the first American woman who had known China so well, her perspective was based on her intimate understanding of China. Her firsthand knowledge of China promised American readers a glimpse into “real” China. The Sense of Superiority China’s relationship with the rest of the world, witnessed a dramatic change with the beginning of nineteenth century. China was one of the oldest continuous civilizations on earth: for most of its history, it dominated nearby nations ignored the rest of the world. It did not seek foreign contacts either in trade or diplomacy, and it rarely welcomed visitors. In words of Ch’ien – Lung Emperor “Our celestial empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufacturers of outside barbarians.” We also get to know International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL) ISSN(P): 2319-3956; ISSN(E): 2319-3964 Vol. 4, Issue 4, Jun - Jul 2015, 1-10 © IASET