Self-Critique Prompted by Immersion in(An)Other Culture:Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson,Xu Zhimo,and Pearl S.Buck
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson,Xu Zhimo,and Pearl S.Buck were not only intriguing public intellectuals,but were also foundational members of literary and political circles,part of a web of relationships between transnational literary communities.All possessed both the Eastern and Western cultures and worlds;all were nonconformists in their own countries who identified acutely with overseas people and places;all left bountiful legacies in their native soil and overseas.They facilitated what was perhaps the most vibrant cultural encounter between China and Great Britain or between China and the United States.They produced cogent critiques of their native countries in part as a result of their immersion in other cultures,which provided them with critical distance from which to observe domestic mores and policies.Through their contrapuntal visions,they were early and prominent examples of migrant writers and scholars who believe in mingling with people of all stripes,in promoting a multicultural world heritage and,above all,in encouraging critical cultural and national introspection.
Goldsworthy Lowes DickinsonXu ZhimoPearl S.Bucknational introspectionself-criticismthe other culture