Annie, "When she first went to China as a child and when she returned after her marriage, she really lived as a Chinese person."
I'm not sure Pearl (Comfort) actually did live as a Chinese person as a child. Her mother Carie was determined to NOT allow her children to take on any of the Chinese customs. She would teach them of their homeland America, and tell them they belong to America. She taught them all about America and what it was like to live there and even traveled to America with them to show them what it would be like for them when they would leave China to go live in America. When they got into their teens she sent them to America to live with family so they could go to college and university and continue to live their lives in America. Carie decorated their homes in China as if they were in America, she cooked American/southern meals and did not allow the children to dress in Chinese garb, she would bring back clippings of flowers from W. Virginia and plant them so her gardens would be the flowers she grew up with. Throughout the entire book of The Exile, Carie's heart is torn between her love and loyalty to America and her missionary work with the poor Chinese. JoanP you mentioned I might share a few nuggets of The Exile with the book club. I must share this because it is so beautiful. In Carie's last days these were her thoughts and words:
narrator: We wheeled her bed to the window and she lay looking out contentedly. Once she said, half dreaming, "I have had after all so many of the good things of life. I have had little children at my breast, I have had good earth to garden in, ruffled curtains blowing in at my windows, hills to look at, and valleys and sky, books and my music_and people to do for. I've had a lot of good in my life. I'd like to go on living, but this time I would give my life to America."
narrator: Now that I have come to know for myself the country she loved so well, I see that indeed she was the very flower of it. Young in spirit to the end, indomitable, swift in generosity, eager after the fine things in life and yet able to live ardently if necessary in poverty, idealistic with the true idealism that is never satisfied with mere idealism not translated into actuality_she was the very breath of America made flesh and spirit. The thousands of Chinese whom she touched in every sort of way she was America. How often have I heard them say, "Americans are good, because they are kind. She was an American." To lonely sailor boys and soldier boys and to all white men and women her hearty good cheer and ready fellowship stood for home_for America in a far country. To her children, in the midst of the most remote and alien environment she gave somehow and who knows at what cost, sometimes, an American background, making them truly citizens of their own country and giving them a love of it which is deathless. To all of us everywhere who knew her this woman was America."
I just sat for a very long time, taking in that last paragraph, thinking about the turmoil it must have been for her to love America so very much and long for it, yet she was so loyal to her husband's need to be a missionary in China, she would not deny him, his calling. She never thought she was as good as her husband when it came to knowing and loving God. And yet she failed to see she lived the Beatitudes every day, which is one of the closet ways you can "BE" with God. The Exile left me breathless.......
Ciao for now~