Lin Yutang: The Cultural Transformation Of The Personality Symbol

Lin Yutang' s personality shaped the past perfect modality of China ' s cultural transformation on individual level. The paper both explains and analyses Lin' s cultural personality on the following four levels: religious roots, freedom principle, sentiment of the Quintessence of Chinese culture, "culture" of humor; at the same time, it elaborates the logic relationships between them and the dynamic generation procession of every parts. The Christian belief concerning the individualist value forms the basis of Lin' s cultural personality; the humanist "God" belief provides his personal dependence. An intellectual with "God" in mind would not give himself to the secular society, and is bound to maintain his own "private spiritual space" , this give rise to Lin' s negative individualist inclination. On the one hand, he keeps distance from the secular customs; on the other hand, he attached great importance to his own spiritual space and individuality. Lin mirrors the Chinese traditional culture in the view of the transformed cultural personality, which composed his sentiment of the Quintessence of the Chinese culture, manifested in his remolding of the traditional cultural roots, his reinterpretation to the golden mean and leisure in the new cultural context. Lin' s cultural sentiment, distinguished by humor, reflects Lin' s peculiar understanding and pursuit of the individualist culture. His humor is symbolized by his leisurely essays, which is not only a kind of aesthetic sentiment, but a real, natural and sympathetic outlook on life. We regard Lin' s personality as a "'sign" , since it is personal, and a microform of the Chinese cultural transformation. He embodies the Chinese culture progressing to the modern time or the height and range of the Chinese intellectual culture of human dignity.