Lin Yutang

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Chinese writer, philosopher, translator, and poet, Lin Yutang (1895 - 1976), wrote more than 35 books in English and Chinese, and brought the classics of Chinese literature to western readers.

In 1919, at the age of 23, he received a half - tuition scholarship to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He married at this time and moved with his wife to the United States. At Harvard he worked toward his doctorate in comparative literature and counted literary scholar and editor Bliss Perry and humanist Irving Babbitt as his professors. Next to T.S. Eliot, Lin has been called the most influential of Babbitt's students. Lin was perhaps the only writer to feature Babbitt in one of his own poems, having mentioned him in "Autobiographical Poem of the Author at Forty," written in Chinese, and again forty years later in his Memoirs of an Octogenarian.

Lin did not finish his degree at Harvard; instead he moved to Le Creusot, France, to study with other Chinese and to work for the Young Men's Christian Academy (YMCA), teaching Chinese laborers to read and write. In 1921 he was accepted at the University of Jena in Leipzig, Germany, where he finally completed his doctorate. Lin returned to China to teach for thirteen years. He was a professor of English literature at the University of Beijing from 1923 - 1926, and served as Dean at Amoy University in 1926.

Participated in the Literary Revolution

The event known as the May Fourth Movement ushered in a new perspective on Chinese culture and literature. On May 4, 1919, students and intellectuals demonstrated in Beijing, calling for a sense of nationalism, anti - imperialism, and linguistic reform. Lin, part of the latter movement, favored abolishing the old, formal Chinese writing style in favor of everyday vernacular. He also supported expressionism and following one's own beliefs.

Two literary groups evolved during this time - those who maintained that literature was a vehicle for morality plays and government propaganda, and the likes of Lin, who believed literature should reflect personal experiences. He supported realism and humanitarianism in literature.

Lin's desire for literary reinvention carried through his academic life. Around 1924, he was one of the first writers to turn to the new, popular writing form of essays. Considered one the best known essayists, he contributed to the influential magazine Yü Ssu. Lin wrote satirical and critical essays filled with sarcasm about government inefficiency and corruption, and wrote rebellious essays that encouraged independent thinking.

Lin had written in an article that appeared in the publication, Random Talks. As quoted in Lai Ming's A History of Chinese Literature, he said, "All independent thinking persons who honestly hold their personal opinions will, at some time or other, become abusive. But this abusiveness is exactly what upholds the dignity of scholars. The scholar who never criticizes anything, only loses his self."

Eventually, those in power noticed Lin's writings, and warlord "Dog - Meat" General Zhang Zongchang chased him out of Beijing. In 1926, Lin fled with his family back to Amoy where he took a position at Amoy University, then served as a secretary to the foreign ministry with the Wuhan Nationalist Government at Hankou.

Established Popular Satirical Magazines

Lin did not lose his love of self - expression in his essay writing and delved into publishing journals and magazines that accepted new writers. In 1930, Lin and a few colleagues started the China Critic, written in English, that focused on political and social issues. This journal attracted western scholars, and commentaries in the New York Times discussed Lin's writings.

In 1932, Lin established The Analects Fortnightly, a western - style satirical magazine that encouraged individuality. It was an instant success, spurring Lin to start This Human World and Cosmic Wind in 1934 and 1936, respectively. These magazines featured contemporary writing that celebrated the human spirit and everyday pleasures.

Chinese peer Chou Tso - jen and western writers Benedetto Croce and Joel Elias Spingarn influenced Lin. He sometimes drew criticism for his lack of intellectual standards in creating serious modern literature, preferring instead to write about personal experiences and whimsical topics such as the joys of smoking a pipe. Nevertheless, in 1936, in the face of imminent Japanese aggression toward China during World War II, Lin joined others in issuing a Manifesto of the Literary Circle advocating for writers to stand together against suppression of free speech.

Published His First English Book

In China, Lin developed a friendship with American author Pearl S. Buck, who wrote the critically acclaimed novel, The Good Earth. At her encouragement, Lin decided to write a book in English about China specifically for western readers. In 1935, he published My Country and My People, an unashamed, and intimate portrayal of the Chinese people and mindset. The book was translated into numerous languages, and made Lin the first Chinese author to reach the top of the New York Times best - seller list.

Lin moved to the United States settling in New York after publishing My Country and My People. He followed in 1937 with his witty The Importance of Living, a precursor to the modern "self - help" book filled with philosophical observations, which also landed on the national best - seller list throughout 1938. Lin, who had become less influential among Chinese writers, had nonetheless become an international success, with his English translations of Chinese texts, historical accounts, and novels. He was a prolific writer for the next 30 years.

Lin saw himself as a "world citizen," an ambassador who brought Chinese culture to the west, and who encouraged communication between east and west. His Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold was a highly acclaimed translation of Chinese classical literature. Lin also gained notoriety for creating a new method of Romanizing the Chinese language and indexing Chinese characters.

Lin, forever an advocate for enjoyment of life, had a reputation for loafing, encouraging the pursuit of leisure, comfort, food, smoking, and relaxation. The Importance of Living contains observations of life's simple pleasures and spiritual happiness. His many philosophical quotes in the book include: "If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live," and "The most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes upon himself, or civilization has imposed upon him. All nature loafs, while man alone works for a living."

Visited China for the Last Time

In 1939, Lin published Moment in Peking, a novel that follows the lives of two Chinese families over 40 years. His 1942, The Wisdom of China and India, further explored Chinese humanism. Between Tears and Laughter, written during World War II, was Lin's bitter plea for the west to change its perspective of the world order. In that book he wrote: "The white man's mission has become a paradox and a boomerang. The white man gave the yellow man the Bible and guns. He should have given him the Bible, which he himself has no use for, and kept from him the guns that he himself used most expertly."

Lin returned to China for a few brief trips during the war. He and his family once survived a Japanese raid. He published Vigil of a Nation in 1944, an ambitious diary of war and societal upheaval he witnessed in his homeland. After another brief trip back to China in 1954, he returned to the United States, never to visit mainland China again.

Lin remained a staunch anticommunist, further alienating him from China. For his novel Looking Beyond, 1955, he presented a utopian view of life, emphasizing his themes of hedonistic pursuits such as wine, women, and food. Despite avowing the Taoism doctrine of pleasurable pursuits, in 1959, Lin publicly renounced his "paganism" and returned to the Christianity of his youth.

During the 1960s he translated and edited Chinese texts, and wrote several more novels. In 1973 he published a Chinese - English dictionary, and in 1975 he wrote his Memoirs of an Octogenarian. Lin was nominated in 1975 for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his later years, he lived in Taiwan and in Hong Kong, where his daughters worked. Lin died at 80 in Hong Kong on March 26, 1976, of heart failure after suffering pneumonia. He is buried in Yangmingshan, Taipei, Taiwan.

Books

Hsia, Chih - Tsing, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction: 1917 - 1957, Yale University Press, New York, 1961.

Ming, Lai A History of Chinese Literature, John Day Company, New York, 1964.

Periodicals

Modern Age, Fall 1999.

Online

Murray, Ryan M., Thesis: "Lighting a Candle and Cursing the Darkness: A Brief Biography of Lin Yutang," December 10, 1999, http://www.g8ina.enta.net/lin.htm (December 15, 2004).

Qian, Suoqiao, "The Two - Way Process in the Age of Globalization: Lin Yutang's Masterpiece," City University of Hong Kong, http://www.cityu.edu.hk/ccs/Newsletter/newsletter4/Masterpiece/master.htm (December 15, 2004).

Warring States Sinology, Lin Yutang, www.umass.edu/wsp/sinology/persons/lin.html (December 15, 2004).

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lin (林).

Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939
Traditional Chinese	林語堂
Simplified Chinese	林语堂
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Lín Yǔtáng - Gwoyeu Romatzyh Lin Yeutarng Min - Hokkien POJ Lîm Gí-tông Cantonese - Jyutping lam4 jyu5 tong4

Lin Yutang (October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.

Contents 1 Youth 2 Academics 3 Passions 4 Legacy 5 Family 6 Works in English by Lin Yutang 7 Works in English by Lin TsuiFeng & Lin HsiangJu (wife & third daughter) 8 Works in English by Adet Lin (first daughter) 9 Works in English by Lin TaiYi (Anor Lin) (second daughter) 10 Notes, References & External links

Youth

Lin was born in the town of Banzai, Pinghe, Zhangzhou, Fujian. This mountainous region made a deep impression on his consciousness, and thereafter he would constantly consider himself a child of the mountains (in one of his books he commented that his idea of hell was a city apartment). His father was a Christian minister. His journey of faith from Christianity to Taoism and Buddhism, and back to Christianity in his later life was recorded in his book From Pagan to Christian (1959).

Academics

Lin studied for his bachelor's degree at Saint John's University in Shanghai, then received a half-scholarship to continue study for a doctoral degree at Harvard University. He later wrote that in the Widener Library he first found himself and first came alive, but he never saw a Harvard-Yale game. ^[1] He left Harvard early however, moving to France and eventually to Germany, where he completed his requirements for a doctoral degree (in Chinese) at the University of Leipzig. From 1923 to 1926 he taught English literature at Peking University. On his return to the United States in 1931, he was briefly detained for inspection at Ellis Island.

Passions

Ming Kwai Typewriter

Dr. Lin was very active in the popularization of classical Chinese literature in the West, as well as the general Chinese attitude towards life. He worked to formulate Gwoyeu Romatzyh a new method of romanizing the Chinese language, and created an indexing system for Chinese characters.

He was interested in mechanics. Since Chinese is a character-based rather than an alphabet-based language, with many thousands of separate characters, it has always been difficult to employ modern printing technologies. For many years it was doubted that a Chinese typewriter could be invented. Lin, however, worked on this problem for decades and eventually came up with a workable typewriter—brought to market in the middle of the war with Japan.

He also invented and patented several lesser inventions such as a toothbrush with toothpaste dispensing.

Legacy

After 1928 he lived mainly in the United States, where his translations of Chinese texts remained popular for many years. At the behest of Pearl Buck, he wrote My Country and My People (吾國與吾民，吾国与吾民) (1935) and The Importance of Living (生活的藝術，生活的艺术) (1937), written in English in a charming and witty style, which became bestsellers. Others include Between Tears and Laughter (啼笑皆非) (1943), The Importance of Understanding (1960, a book of translated Chinese literary passages and short pieces), The Chinese Theory of Art (1967), and the novels Moment in Peking (京華煙雲，京华烟云) (1939) and The Vermillion Gate (朱門，朱门) (1953), Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (當代漢英辭典，当代汉英词典) (1973).

His many works represent an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the East and the West. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times in the 1970s.^[1]

He was nominated and served briefly as president (or chancellor) of the Nanyang University created in Singapore specifically for Chinese studies complementary to the English-oriented University of Singapore. He did not, however, choose to continue in that role when Nanyang (South Seas) University became a focus of the struggle for control of Singapore between the Communist-directed left and the liberal, social democratic right. He felt he was too old for the conflict.

He also sponsored and largely presided over the compilation and the publication of the most wide-ranging Chinese-English dictionary, with a massive reference appendix directing the English-reader to Chinese equivalents, when in Hong Hong, where he served for a time at the newly founded Chinese University there.

Dr. Lin was buried at his home in Yangmingshan, Taipei, Taiwan. His home has been turned into a museum, which is operated by Taipei-based Soochow University. The town of Lin's birth, Banzai, has also preserved the original Lin home and turned it into a museum.

Family

His wife, Lin TsuiFeng was a cookbook author whose authentic recipes did a great deal to popularize the art of Chinese cookery in America. Dr. Lin wrote the introduction to one collection of recipes compiled by his wife and their third daughter, Lin HsiangJu (林相如).

His first daughter Adet Lin (1923-1971) was an author who also used the pseudonym Tan Yun.

His second daughter Lin TaiYi (林太乙) (1926-2003) was also known as Anor Lin in her earliest writing. She was an author and the general editor of Chinese Readers' Digest from 1965 until her retirement in 1988. ^[2]

His third daughter Lin HsiangJu (林相如) (1931-), was referred to as MeiMei in childhood. She was co-author of cookbooks with her mother, and was a biochemist at Queen Mary hospital in Hong Kong.^[2]

Works in English by Lin Yutang

• (1935) My Country and My People, Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., (A John Day Book)
• (1936) A History of the Press and Public Opinion in China, Kelly and Walsh
• (1937) The Importance of Living, Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., (A John Day Book)
• (1938) The Wisdom of Confucius, Random House, The Modern Library
• (1939) Moment in Peking, A John Day Book Company
• (1940) With Love & Irony, A John Day Book Company
• (1940) Leaf in the Storm, A John Day Book Company
• (1942) The Wisdom of China and India, Random House
• (1943) Between Tears & Laughter, A John Day Book Company
• (1944) The Vigil of a Nation, A John Day Book Company
• (1947) The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo, A John Day Book Company
• (1948) Chinatown Family, A John Day Book Company
• (1948) The Wisdom of Laotse, Random House
• (1950) On the Wisdom of America, A John Day Book Company
• (1951) Widow, Nun and Courtesan: Three Novelettes From the Chinese Translated and Adapted by Lin Yutang, A John Day Book Company
• (1952) Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang, A John Day Book Company
• (1953) The Vermilion Gate, A John Day Book Company
• (1955) Looking Beyond, Prentice Hall (Published in England as The Unexpected island, Heinemann)
• (1957) Lady Wu, World Publishing Company
• (1958) The Secret Name, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy
• (1959) The Chinese Way of Life, World Publishing Company
• (1959) From Pagan to Christian, World Publishing Company
• (1960) Imperial Peking: Seven Centuries of China, Crown Publishers
• (1960) The Importance of Understanding, World Publishing Company
• (1961) The Red Peony, World Publishing Company
• (1962) The Pleasure of a Nonconformist, World Publishing Company
• (1963) Juniper Loa, World Publishing Company
• (1964) The Flight of Innocents, G. P. Putnam's Sons
• (1973) Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage, Hong Kong Chinese University

Works in English by Lin TsuiFeng & Lin HsiangJu (wife & third daughter)

• (1956) Cooking with the Chinese Flavor, Prentice Hall
• (1960) Secrets of Chinese Cooking, Prentice Hall
• (1972) Chinese Gastronomy, Pyramid Publications; 1977 reprint: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (introduction by Dr. Lin Yutang)
• (1996) The Art of Chinese Cuisine, Tuttle (a retitled edition of 1972 Chinese Gastronomy)

Works in English by Adet Lin (first daughter)

• (1939) Our Family with Anor Lin (New York: John Day).
• (1941) Dawn over Chungking with Anor and MeiMei (HsiangJu) Lin (New York: John Day).
• (1943) "Flame from the Rock" (New York: John Day).
• (1961) "The Milky Way and Other Chinese Folk Tales" (New York: Harcourt Brace).

Works in English by Lin TaiYi (Anor Lin) (second daughter)

• (1939) Our Family with Adet Lin. (New York: John Day).
• (1941) Dawn over Chungking with Adet and MeiMei (HsiangJu) Lin. (New York: John Day, rpr. Da Capo, 1975 ).
• (1943) War Tide (New York: John Day).
• (1946) The Golden Coin (New York: John Day).
• (1959) The Eavesdropper (Cleveland: World).
• (1960) The Lilacs Overgrow (Cleveland: World).
• (1964) Kampoon Street (Cleveland,: World).

Li Ju-chen (Lin TaiYi tr.) , Flowers in the Mirror (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965).

Notes, References & External links

Christianity in China portal

1. ^ ^{a b} E. Bruce Brooks, "Sinologists: Lin Yutang"
2. ^ ^{a b} Ryan Murray's thesis

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lin Yutang

• Works by or about Lin Yutang at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions)
• List of Lin Yutang's publications
• G8INA's Full Lin Yutang English bibliography
• Lin Yutang Biography & Photograph Collection
• Lin Yutang Biography Part 1 PDF (English translation of Anor Lin's work)
• Lin Yutang Biography Part 2 PDF (English translation of Anor Lin's work)
• Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage
• Article in The Idler Magazine
• Lin Yutang's Chinese typewriter
• Lin Yutang's house
• Mark Cyzyk's review of The Importance of Living

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