Toward Cultural Utopia--On Lin Yu-tang's Cultural Alternative In His Later Period

The essence of the relation between China and the West was the contrast between strongness and weakness. Lin Yu-tang's cultural alternative in his later period was restricted by the Western discourse. When Lin Yu-tang told foreigner Chinese culture , "inferiority complex" to the Chinese tradition transformded into "narcissism" to the Chinese tradition silently "orientalization" and "self-orietalization" underlyingly operated, which made Lin Yu-tang be inclined to indentify-with traditional culture. Lin Yu-tang's texts in his later period were impure, in other words, owned the structure of "duplicate melody".Another significant item of Lin Yu-tang's cultural alternative in his later period was "Chinese-the Western culture synthesis". It is Lin Yu-tang's "Chinese-the Western culture synthesis" that he put the Chinese tradition spirit and the Western modern material into together for the sake of the Great harmony of global culture. Because of Lin Yu-tang's abstract thought mode , his "Chinese-the Western culture synthesis" became a cultural Utopia. On the way to his cultural Utopia, the Western discouse still restricted his practice. His "stepping on Chinese-the Western culture with double feet" refered to the fact that the foot on Chinese tradition was weak and the one on the Western civilization was strong. It was the center of his cultural Utopia to remedy the Western civilization with the Chinese tradition. His "complementarity" inclined to the center so that his cultural Utopia was nothing more than a beautiful disguise with "cosmopolitism". Hence, his "abstract" was not only a thought mode but also a discouse space with abundant content of culture and ideology.Lin Yu-tang's texts in his later period was heterogeneity compared to the Chinese modern literature which had a desire to establish a nation-state so that he became a scarce case that will rebound to our studying Chinese modernity in twenty century.