Tag #23402 - Peony

Thanks to Nicole Florian for the lovely design.

One of my favorite books is written by Pearl Buck. I couldn't resist to make this tag in memory of her book called Peony.

Peony is set in the 1850s in the city of K'aifeng, in the province of Honan, which was historically a center for Chinese Jews. The novel follows Peony, a Chinese bondmaid of the prominent Jewish family of Ezra ben Israel, and shows through her eyes how the Jewish community was regarded in K'aifeng at a time when most of the Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese. The novel contains a hidden love and shows the importance of duty along with the challenges of life. This novel is one that follows the guidelines of Buck's work. The setting is China, religion is involved, and there is an interracial couple (David and Kueilan).

A prefatory note before the title page tells the reader of the assimilation of the Jews of K'aifeng. "Today even the memory of their origin is gone. They are Chinese."