Talk:Absalom Sydenstricker

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Thank you, editors, for the excellent start to the article on Absalom Sydenstricker.

I recently added the table with caption "The Family life and missionary work of Absalom (Andrew) and Caroline (Carie) Sydenstricker (Stulting)".

I wish to start a discussion about the sentence in the 2nd paragraph that starts with "She describes her father in harsh terms...". While I understand this point of view, I think this may be an oversimplification of Pearl S. Buck's view of her father. I would propose that the sentence read something like "She writes of her father honestly, telling of his shortcomings as a husband and father, and of his steadfastness as a missionary in China." I would also propose that the phrase "his closed minded attitude toward China" be removed from the sentence. I have read Fighting Angel twice and I see evidence that Absalom was respected and loved by the Chinese. For example, in chapter 10, page 244, of Fighting Angel, we read Pearl Buck's defence of Absalom in the face of opposition by some "young missionaries":

... they were not loved as he (Absalom) was loved, nor welcomed as he was. Nor did they realize how many years it had taken him to win that love - how much persecution he had borne and how steadfastly he had visited the sick and stayed by the dying and how often upheld a struggling soul.

And further on page 244,

Most of all the Chinese loved him because he knew no color to a man's soul and he took the part of the yellow man again and again against the white man...

Respectfully,

Aquick777 (talk) 02:44, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Interesting question about PSB's attitude, which is conflicted. But one problem in writing a Wikipedia article is that the policy No Original Research means that we have to find Reliable Sources. So it may (or may not) be that his family members called him "Andrew," for instance, but we have to give a source for it. All we can say is that he is called "Andrew" in the two memoirs of her parents. I don't see any reference to "Andrew" in Conn's book, where it would be expected.

To be sure, there's tolerance for stating the obvious without giving a source, and we're allowed to quote in order to illustrate a point, so we might just put those quotes in. I agree that Conn doesn't catch the balance between PSB's rebellion and her later respect, but I can't put that in the article because it's only my own judgment, not a reliable source.ch (talk) 00:06, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

The point about names is well taken. It is very confusing that the names used by PSB in her memoirs are often different from her family member's formal names. In fact, she never refers to herself as Pearl, only with the name Comfort. I am willing to change the unquoted "Andrew" to "Absalom" (unquoted) and "Carie" to "Caroline" (unquoted) and only use the informal names in quotes. I have no idea whether the children's names as given in PSB's memoirs are in fact their formal names.

I have based much of my research on PSB's autobiographies of her parents. I will attempt to get the Conn reference from my local library. I would be interested to see what Conn's references are. It may well be that PSB is the only significant reference we have on Absalom Sydenstricker. I would suppose that there are records on the missionary work of Absalom Sydenstricker kept by the Presbyterian Church.

I am still claiming that PSB's attitude toward her father should be represented in a more balanced way, as in my suggested change. It seems to me that representing PSB's attitude with more balance comes closer to a "neutral point of view" than simply saying that she is "harsh".

Aquick777 (talk) 20:24, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I think that you are right that "harsh" is too... well, "harsh." Maybe we can say something like "conflicted," since she reports in Fighting Angel that her attitude changed as she got older. I think that you will enjoy Conn's book, which is available on Alibris (link here: [1] for almost nothing. The recent reprint also seems to have an Introduction which might be useful. ch (talk) 04:56, 4 December 2011 (UTC)