“The soul of a great nation is expressed in the life of its humblest people. In this simple story of a Chinese farmer may be found something of the soul of China—its humility, its courage, its deep heritage from the past, and its vast promise for the future.”
A Story of China
The story begins on the day when Wang Lung (Paul Muni) is to be married. He is a poor farmer, so his bride is a kitchen slave from the Great House. The innocent young man is nervous and excited when he gets his unknown bride, O-Lan (Luise Rainer), a quiet but hardworking woman who was sold into slavery when her farmer parents faced famine. She plants a peach pit on Lung’s land the day they marry.O-Lan works hard to care for her husband and his elderly father (Charley Grapewin), who surprise her by not showing her the cruelty she faced as a slave. Eventually, she bears him children, two sons and a daughter. Lung buys more land with the money he makes from successful harvests, and he eventually has five fields.
A few years later, famine strikes as a drought dries up all the crops. Farmers are forced to sell their land, kill their oxen, and sell their daughters into slavery just to get enough food for their families to survive. However, Wang Lung refuses to sell his land, since he knows that someday the famine will end and that it will be worth something again. His wife encourages him to keep the fields, even when his lazy uncle (Walter Connolly) is pressuring him to sell so that Lung can support his slothful lifestyle. The couple end up taking a train south to find work and food until the famine passes.
In the big city, they beg, steal, and work demeaning jobs to get a little food and shelter. When a revolution plunges the city into chaos, O-Lan joins a mob looting a mansion, and she finds a bag of jewels. With this newfound wealth, they are able to return to the north and make their land profitable again, as the rain comes. However, as Wang Lung becomes a rich man, he is faced with the temptations that wealth brings, such as another woman (Tilly Losch), lavish possessions, and trying to live like a lord.
East Meets West
During the Golden Era of Hollywood, the American film industry was dominated by U.S.-born people of European descent. Thus, Caucasian actors played most prominent roles, donning makeup, hairstyles, and costumes to appear as other ethnicities. “The Good Earth” is an example of this practice, with the main characters being Chinese but played by white actors in “yellowface” makeup.Nevertheless, even back in the United States, “The Good Earth” was affected by current politics in the Far East. Because of the Sino-Japanese conflict, the Chinese authorities threatened to boycott the movie if any Japanese actors were cast.
Many people hold the Production Code Administration (PCA) responsible for the perceived racial injustice in the casting of this movie. Anna May Wong, one of the main Chinese actresses in 1930s Hollywood, was tested for the role of O-Lan, but she was offered the role of Lotus. Not wanting to play the antagonist while Caucasian actors played sympathetic characters, she turned it down. However, the PCA’s job was to enforce the moral content guidelines of the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly called the Hays Code, not to dictate casting decisions—that was the business of the studio.
A clause in the Code did forbid miscegenation, specifically between white and black people, but this was added after the document’s original composition. It was added for the same reason that the filmmakers of “The Good Earth” decided to cast both leading characters as white actors in yellowface, rather than one Caucasian performer and one Asian performer. Many censor boards were against miscegenation, since there still were laws against white and Asian mixed marriages in the 1930s. The PCA’s main job was to help movies avoid censorship, so it usually recommended the elimination of miscegenetic relationships in films. When it came to casting actors of different races as a couple of the same race, filmmakers were allowed to use their own discretion.
While we don’t expect films from the Golden Era of Hollywood (1930s–1950s) to match modern entertainment standards, seeing actors in yellowface is hard for modern viewers. Although some performers can be believable, it can be awkward to watch famous Caucasian actors in Chinese or Japanese makeup and hairstyles. Luise Rainer, however, is one of the most convincing actors in yellowface, and her great performance as the hardworking Chinese wife earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. In fact, all the actors in “The Good Earth” embody their characters so effectively that viewers quickly get drawn into the story and begin to believe that the actors really are these people.
This Chinese New Year, why not enjoy this Hollywood classic? With an ever-changing story, over 1,500 extras, and amazingly clear footage of a locust swarm, it’s an amazing piece of cinematic history. The story also reminds us of universal truths, which are just as true today as they were 86 years ago. Money is worthless if it comes at the expense of your ideals. Property is the greatest form of wealth a man can own. Above all, it’s better to be nearly starving in a simple shack with a family of people you love than to be living a vain, selfish, lonely life in a mansion.
