Pearl S. Buck on American Society: Towards a Multi-Racial (Post-Racial?) Future

Abstract Novelist and social commentator Pearl S. Buck, best known for her writings on Asia, called, in an important 1937 article entitled “On Discovering America,” for Americans to be more open to immigrants and envisioned a future post-racial United States, created through the amalgamation of the best ideas from the world’s cultures. This essay examines Buck’s 1937 article on immigration, and uses it as a baseline to consider as well several of Buck’s novels (from 1930 to the early 1950s) which include themes of immigration, multi-racial sexual relations, and mixed-race children.