The Good Earth (film) the Best Actress award (Luise Rainer), the film won for Best Cinematography. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: The Good Earth (film) The Good Earth is a 1937 American drama film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Owen Davis and Donald Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck. The film was directed by Sidney Franklin, with uncredited contributions by Victor Fleming and Gustav Machaty. The
Chinese American literature Importance of Living" (1937), became best-sellers. Chinese American authors became more prolific and accepted after the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Authors who achieved success in the 1950s included C.Y. Lee (author), whose "The Flower Drum Song" was made into a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and Jade Snow Wong, author of Fifth Chinese Daughter. The 1970s saw further progress. Playwright Frank Chin's play, "The Chickencoop Chinaman" (1971) became the first play by an Asian American to be produced as a major New York production. Maxine Hong Kingston won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976 for The Woman