After the overthrow of the Ching Dynasty Manchus in 1911, others began to envision a United and democratic nation, and developments did not go as well as the leader had hoped. By the late 1920s, China was torn by civil unrest from Canon to Peking, from the Indian border to the Amur River on Russia's border.
Most of the tenant farmers working the land for the wealthy landowners. Wang Lung was a small independent farmer working his plot. Most stands out about Pearl Buck's vision of the typical farmer in China in the 1920s because Buck specifically wrote about a universal farmer.
He knew about riches and security, but his character is rooted in his hard-working demeanor. He knew the greatest of all treasures came from The Good Earth itself. Communist leaders came to depend on farmers like Wang Lung, and the balance of power was changing for the better.