An Analysis Of The Cultural Connotations In Moment In Peking

Lin Yutang is a great linguist, an outstanding scholar, and a writer full of creativity and imagination. It is widely believed that his greatest contribution is that he can teach the Chinese Western culture and the westerners' Chinese culture, thus bridging the gap between the Chinese and the Western culture.Moment in Peking is a historical novel originally written in English by Lin Yutang. The story describes the ups and downs of three wealthy families, the Yao, the Tseng and the New, with vivid depictions of many representative characters with distinct personalities. It's a novel of broad canvas, which began with the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and ended in 1937 at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. The uniqueness of this novel lies in its profound cultural connotations. Moment in Peking combines his soul with his philosophy. In his novel, Lin Yutang extols a combination of Confucianism and Taoism, or to be exact, a life philosophy with Taoism being inside and Confucianism outside. This is vividly expressed by the main characters represented by Yao Mulan. This philosophical idea of combining Confucianism with Taoism is in accordance with his humanistic philosophy. This is also a result of his reasoning in the conflicts of Chinese and Western cultural values, about the destiny of human culture from the perspective of melting Chinese culture with the Western one.