Lin Yutang’s Interpretation On Eastern And Western Cultures

Lin Yutang is a renowned Chinese writer as well as a master of language with agood command of Eastern and Western cultures. His most significant contribution isthe interpretation on Western and Western cultures: bringing the western culture to theEast and introducing Western culture to the West.“Two feet set in bi-culture of Eastand West, one heart looks into works of heaven and hell”, this is Lin’s attitudestowards the relationship between Western and western cultures. He produced anumber of literary works of traditional Western culture in English all his life, such asthe famous trilogy: Moment in Peking, A Leaf in the Storm and Chinatown Family;the biography: The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo and Lady Wu; thebest-known prose: My Country and My People and The Importance of Living, etc. Inaddition, he also translated many Chinese classical works into English. All theseworks facilitate the communication between western and eastern culture. The presentstudy will conduct a detailed analysis of Lin’s two works: Moment in Peking and TheGay Genius.This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter describes the causes ofthe multi-cultural concept of Lin Yu-tang, respectively, from his life experiences, histhoughts on Chinese and Western cultures together with Lin Yutang’s domesticresearch in recent years. The second chapter discusses Taoism, Confucianism as wellas Chinese and Western elements of the "Moment in Peking”. The third chapterdiscusses the great person Su Tungpo who both holds Eastern and Western culturesviews. By image of Su Tungpo, the character of Chinese and Western ideas of mixedoutlook on life, Lin Yutang expresses his own true inner world. The last chaptercompares Lin Yutang with contemporary well-known scholar Gu Hongming, andfinally we can arrive at a conclusion that real value and significance of Lin Yutang’s Chinese and Western Cultures, at the same time the author expresses the reasonableaspects and limitations of Lin’s views.This thesis attempts to analyze Lin from the perspective of Eastern-Westernculture. Lin’s cultural choice will be examined in terms of the cultural conflicts,complementation and fusion reflected in Lin’s body and mind. On the analysis oftwo works, this paper will present eastern and western readers complementaryattitudes toward life: free and easy, and pragmatic. Meanwhile, it also introduces theidea of liberty, humanity in west and obedience in Christianity to eastern readers.This paper aims to demonstrate humanism in eastern and western cultures and how itcan keep balance in the boundless universe.