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The Cross-Cultural Legacy of Lin Yutang

Critical Perspectives
by Suoqiao Qian (Editor)
Paperback eBook
Price: $32.00 / £27.00
Publication Date: Dec 2015
Publisher:
Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley
Imprint: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 276
ISBN: 9781557291691
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Series:
  • China Research Monograph
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About the Book

Lin Yutang (1895–1976) was the modern Chinese writer and intellectual best known to the Western world in the twentieth century. Hailed as a “Chinese philosopher,” Lin was the de facto spokesman for China and Chinese culture and played the role of cultural ambassador between China and the United States. This critical volume, representing the best international scholarship on Lin Yutang studies to date, is a first attempt at a comprehensive study on the cross-cultural legacy of Lin’s literary practices in and across China and America. The essays collected here, most of which were first presented at the international conference on the cross-cultural legacy of Lin Yutang in China and America held at the City University of Hong Kong in December 2011, offer different perspectives on Lin’s cross-cultural legacy.

About the Author

Qian Suoqiao (also Qian Jun) is professor and chair of Chinese studies at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of Liberal Cosmopolitan: Lin Yutang and Middling Chinese Modernity (2011) and editor of Cross-Cultural Studies: China and the World (2015), Little Critic: The Bilingual Essays of Lin Yutang (2012), and Chinese American Literature: An Annotated Bilingual Bibliography (2011), in addition to other publications. He has just finished a monograph tentatively titled Lin Yutang: Journey across China and America, 1895–1976. Education: B.A. in English, Beijing Foreign Studies University; M.A./Ph.D. in comparative literature, University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

Contributors – vii
Introduction. Western Universalism and Chinese Identity: Lin Yutang as a Cross-Cultural Critic – 1
Qian Suoqiao

PART I. TRADITION AND RELIGION: AN ALTERNATIVE INTELLECTUAL PATH
1. On Lin Yutang: Between Revolution and Nostalgia – 19 Chih-ping Chou
2. Lin Yutang’s Unique Adoption of Tradition – 38 Charles Laughlin
3. A Bundle of Contradictions: Lin Yutang’s Relationship to Christianity – 49 Yang Liu

PART II. LANGUAGE AND LAW: CULTURE AND POLITICS IN THE 1920s AND 1930s
4. Lin Yutang and the National Language Movement in Modern China – 67 Peng Chunling (translated by Wang Lu and Fang Lu)
5. The “Fair Society” (Pingshe) in the Diaries of Lin Yutang and Hu Shi – 95 Chen Zishan (translated by Richard Sheung)

PART III. CROSS-CULTURAL TRAVELS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE WEST
6. Lin Yutang’s Criticism of Criticism of Criticism: On Self-Expression in China and America – 115 Diran John Sohigian
7. Collaborator or Cannibal? Montaigne’s Role in Lin Yutang’s Importance of Living – 143 Rivi Handler-Spitz
8. The Genesis and Reception of My Country and My People – 162 Qian Suoqiao

PART IV. INTERPRETING CHINA AND CHINESE IN AMERICA
9. His Country and His Language: Lin Yutang and the Interpretation of Things Chinese – 185 Joe Sample
10. Reconstructing the Image of a Chinese Courtesan for Western Readers: Lin Yutang’s Miss Tu and His Cross-Cultural Rewriting Strategies – 201 Fang Lu
11. The Several Worlds of Lin Yutang’s Gastronomy – 232 Charles W. Hayford

Index – 253

Reviews

“The editor and contributors of the volume are to be lauded for presenting diverse aspects but centered on the unifying theme of Lin Yutang and his writings. Particularly praiseworthy is the lack of repetition in the chapters, a common downfall of many edited volumes on historical figures. [...] Lin Yutang’s background and writings deserve closer attention from scholars today and this volume is one step in that direction.” —Chris White, Purdue University, Journal of Chinese Overseas, Volume 14: Issue 1.