Pearl S. Buck's engagement with (neo-)missionary cultures in the United
States and China is a central element of her work. Against the backdrop
of her missionary upbringing, the Nobel Prize winner Buck developed a
fictional project which both revised and reaffirmed American foreign
missionary activity in the Pacific Rim during the 20th century. Vanessa
Künnemann traces this aspect of the career of America's number one
expert on China--as Buck came to be known--from a variety of
disciplinary angles, including Middlebrow Studies and New American
Studies.