“That’s true. But Lossing is like Absalom. He is determined to die in China.” She laughed. Her eyes were radiant with cloudless pleasure.
The first time I witnessed Pearl and Lossing’s differences was at their wedding. Pearl was wearing a Western wedding gown, while Lossing wore a dark suit. Pearl held a bouquet of flowers picked that morning from Carie’s garden. As Pearl was led to the church, the town’s children sang American songs Carie had taught them. Afterward they sang the Chinese wedding song, which delighted Pearl because she used to sing the song as a child.
Buddha sits on a lotus pad,
Beautiful fingers orchidlike.
Sun goes down and moon comes up,
May your life be peaceful and tranquil.
Mud walls and straw pillows,
Fruits, seeds, and many sons.
Happiness and longevity,
May you have the spring and all its fair weather.
Lossing didn’t care for the song. When our friends from the Wan-Wan Tunes troupe came to congratulate the couple and performed the popular musical The Pig’s Wedding, Lossing became upset.
While Pearl felt honored, Lossing felt humiliated. He didn’t like the pig bridegroom, although the character was a hero in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. I could tell that Lossing’s offense and lack of humor bothered Pearl, but she didn’t make a show of it.
Carie had planned the wedding to the last detail. Besides Papa, Carpenter Chan, Lilac, and many of her other Chinese friends, Carie invited the English consul, the embassy doctor, their wives, and her other missionary friends. Carie didn’t expect the entire town of Chin-kiang to invite itself. However, the Chinese believe that a good wedding must be packed, and the townspeople felt that Carie’s daughter deserved everyone’s blessing.
Pearl wanted me to be the hostess. She didn’t care that I had been married before. But all the women in town, myself included, thought it was a bad idea. I was considered abandoned by my husband, and therefore I was bad luck for a new bride. Instead Pearl asked me to hire the local chefs and pick the size and color of the melons and fruits that would be piled throughout the entrance and hallway. It was important in Chinese custom to invite all the gods by displaying the symbols of festivity and fertility.
Seeds, nuts, and fruits were thrown at the couple as soon as Pearl and Lossing were pronounced husband and wife. The church courtyard was overflowing with cheerful people. I helped Carie as she gave candies to people and thanked them for coming.
Led by Papa, the crowd paraded through the town. We arrived at Absalom and Carie’s house. The new couple’s room was on the second floor. The pink curtains and the beautiful Persian rug were from Carie’s own room. The banquet was to be held downstairs, where nine courses of Chinese dishes would be served.
Pink-cheeked and in a red Chinese dress, Pearl came downstairs and served tea. She lit cigarettes for the elderly and placed jasmine buds in the palms of young children. Outside, there was the sound of firecrackers. This was to invite good omens. The local band started to play.
Lossing said in English that he didn’t want to play clown and be pushed around by a Chinese crowd. He wanted no part of what he called their “silly games.” It was no use that the locals kept cheering. Pearl ended up apologizing for Lossing.
Told by their parents to help inspire fertility, children hid themselves under the wedding-night bed. They were chased away by Lossing.
Lossing was disgusted when he saw all the chopsticks reaching toward the same plate. He said he would rather starve.
When Pearl encouraged Lossing to taste her favorite Chin-kiang sesame candy, Lossing pointed out the seller’s dirt-filled fingernails and gave Pearl a lesson on how disease spreads.
Pearl was confident that Lossing would soon get used to the Chinese culture. She never doubted that she could create harmony in her marriage. She had faith in Lossing’s ability to understand. “After all, he graduated from Cornell,” she told me.
At Lossing’s request, Pearl accompanied him into the countryside. Lossing began his agricultural project by surveying the land. Pearl became his personal assistant, interpreter, guide, interviewer, field secretary, and footman. She got up at dawn and worked with Lossing in the fields until nightfall.
As I had feared, it didn’t take long for Pearl to lose her enthusiasm. She found herself fighting the widening gap between herself and her husband.
“Conflict is a sign of a healthy relationship,” she said when I asked about her marriage. It pleased her that Lossing was getting what he needed. Pearl wanted to fulfill the role of a good wife. She made it her duty to be pleasant and cheerful.
“Lossing carries far too heavy a burden,” she told me. “His well-being depends on me.” She wouldn’t admit that he didn’t even notice what she cooked for him. Unlike the Chinese, who lived to eat, Lossing ate to live.
While Carie accepted Lossing, Absalom began to have trouble. He disapproved of Lossing’s interference with the way Chinese peasants did their business. The two fought often and finally quit speaking to each other.
Pearl was right that there were similarities between Absalom and Lossing. Absalom’s mission was to save Chinese souls, and Lossing’s mission was to fix Chinese farming methods. Absalom believed that the Christian God ought to be the only God. Lossing believed that his farming method was the best.
But Pearl had her doubts. She said to Lossing, “The Chinese have survived, farming for thousands of years, on the same land and by the most skillful use of fertilizers and irrigation. They produce extraordinary yields without modern machinery!”
The couple moved away soon after Lossing’s proposal was approved by the governor of Anhui province. Lossing didn’t take the governor’s advice to move after the winter. He couldn’t stand Absalom another minute.
Reluctantly, Pearl followed Lossing. They moved to a town north of Chin-kiang called Nanhsuchou, in Anhui province. Pearl didn’t want to leave her mother behind. I asked Pearl why Lossing had to go to the poorest province in China. “Why can’t he find a better place to conduct his project?”
“The farmers of fertile southern land are satisfied with their ways,” Pearl explained. “They are not interested in Lossing’s experiments.”
The governor of the poor province supported Lossing’s ideas because he had little to lose. The governor would gain all the benefit if Lossing succeeded. What Lossing needed was the commitment of the farmers to follow his methods. To make it all work, the governor promised to compensate the farmers if Lossing’s experiment failed.
After a few weeks, I went north and visited Pearl to see how she was faring. Her new home was a two-room cottage. It had previously been occupied by a Christian missionary family. Pearl ’s door and windows didn’t keep out the dust. No matter how hard she cleaned, within hours the inside of her house would be covered by a new layer of dust. Pearl ’s neighbors were Chinese peasant families. They lived in horrible poverty. Pearl told me that she was grateful for the roof over her head.
“Moisture seeped through my walls last month,” she said. She showed me the mold that grew underneath her bed and between her mats and sheets. “I have to always be careful when opening the chamber pot.” She tried to sound lighthearted. “I never know what could be hunting for food in there. It could be a giant spider or a grandmother stinkbug.”
The second time I visited Pearl, she shared with me the exciting news that she was pregnant. “I am finally released from my official duties for the agriculturalist.”
“The agriculturalist” was what Pearl had started to call Lossing. “I thought when I got married I would no longer have to take orders like I did from my father when I was a child.”
As a way to escape her troubles, Pearl began to write. She found comfort in writing. She told me that her imagination was the only place where she could be herself and be free. I knew she had a zest for stories. Charles Dickens was her inspiration. I remembered the first time we met that she held in her hand a black leather-bound book, which she later told me was A Tale of Two Cities. She loved Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and The Pickwick Papers. She read the stories so many times that she could practically recite them. She had always enjoyed writing and had won awards for her work when she was at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in America. She knew that she had to keep her writing a secret. Absalom had made it clear to her that serving God was the only purpose of living. Lossing made Pearl feel guilty for pursuing anything of her own interest. He wanted her to continue to be his interpreter and was upset when she refused. Pearl joked, “Am I conditioned to a man’s dominance?”