Pearl Buck's life told in dance

Daniel Ezralow, Academy Awards winning choreographer talks about the creation of the new multi-cultural dance play Pearl, which will premier at Lincoln Center in August. Hong Xiao / For China Daiy

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), the author whose works so deeply influenced the world's view of China, will now have her life story told.

A new multi-cultural modern dance performance inspired by the life of Pear S. Buck, the first woman to win both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for literature, will have its world premier at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on August 27.

The story will be brought to life by Academy Award-winning choreographer Daniel Ezralow, with a score by Japanese composer Jun Miyake, who has collaborated with David Byrne and Oliver Stone, and an international company of 30 dancers, including acclaimed dancer Margie Gillis.

"Pearl is a reflection of our global culture, a culture of one," said Ezralow. Her story "represents several mergings: of Chinese and Western cultures, of theatre and dance, of popular and high art, of authentic inspiration and expression, of learning and entertainment. These differences don't separate us, they bring us together."

Born in West Virginia, Buck lived in China with her missionary parents at the turn of the 20th century, overcoming a difficult childhood and numerous obstacles on her path to self-discovery.

Spending the first half of her life in China and later life in the US, Buck's unique perspective lives today in the more than 60 books she wrote, including her 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling novel The Good Earth, which became an Academy Award-winning film in 1937.