Via The Philadelphia Enquirer:

ZHENJIANG, China - This smoggy, industrial city is famous for one thing, which it manufactures by the bottle, jug and gallon: vinegar.

But it wants to be famous for something else: being the place where author Pearl S. Buck grew up, where she experienced the sweat and toil of everyday Chinese life that dominated so many of her books and came to define China for a generation of Americans.

In Zhenjiang, where Buck spent much of her first 18 years, the Chinese are working hard to create a viable, profitable tourist industry based on interest in the writer. They are renovating houses and places tied to her to lure visitors from Europe, the United States and Asia.

On Oct. 19, officials here dedicated a grand new Pearl Buck Museum. Here to join them was a 70-person delegation from Pearl S. Buck International, known as PSBI, the Pennsylvania foundation that continues the author’s work in international adoption and children’s aid.

There is also the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace museum in Hillsboro, West Virginia, whose webpage for unknown reasons plays a midi version of “Do You Believe in Life After Love?” by Cher.

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