Anthony C.Yu’s Studies On A Dream Of Red Mansions

As a Chinese American academic, Anthony C.Yu has been distinguished for his remarkable translations and studies of The Journey to the West. Meanwhile,his researches on another Chinese classical novel named A Dream of Red Mansions have the same value as well. Focusing on the fictions in the novel, Yu’s studies have been exploring the theme of the novel and excavating the literary images of Lin Daiyu. He considered that the A Dream of Red Mansions should be treated as a novel to read, furthermore, underlined the fictional character in it contemporarily. There were two points that centralized in Anthony C.Yu’s studies on the theme of A Dream of Red Mansions: the desire of A Dream of Red Mansions and the hidden meanings of Buddhism in the novel. Yu’s studies on the characters in A Dream of Red Mansions were mainly concentrated on Lin Daiyu. In order to confront with Chih-tsing Hsia’s appreciation of Xue Baochai, Yu has explained the new image of Lin Daiyu and analyzed her tragedy connotations. There are three features in Yu’s study: flexibility in the use of Western literary theory; the research methods of comparative literature; the attitude towards multilateral dialogue. Yu’s studies on redology, which embody new opinions and enlightenments, could inspire a large number of scholars to study on Chinese classical literature and provide reference significance to western sinology research, finally, open up a new perspective through the cross-cultural for the interpretations of the meaning in the A Dream of Red Mansions.