Lin Yutang

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Lin Yutang, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939
Lin Yutang, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lin (林).

Lin Yutang (Traditional Chinese: 林語堂; Simplified Chinese: 林语堂; pinyin: Lín Yǔtāng, October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer and inventor whose original works and translations of classic Chinese texts became very popular in the West.

Lin was born in in the town of Banzi in Fujian province in southeastern China, near Xiamen. This mountainous region made a deep impression on his consciousness, and thereafter he would constantly consider himself a child of the mountains (in one of his books he commented that his idea of hell was a city apartment). His father was a Christian minister.

Lin studied for his bachelor's degree at Saint John's University in Shanghai, then received a half-scholarship to continue study for a doctoral degree at Harvard University. He left Harvard early however, moving to France and eventually to Germany, where he completed his requirements for a doctoral degree (in Chinese) at the University of Leipzig. From 1923 to 1926 he taught English literature at Peking University. On his return to the United States in 1931, he was briefly detained for inspection at Ellis Island.

Dr. Lin was very active in the popularization of classical Chinese literature in the West, as well as the general Chinese attitude towards life. He worked to formulate a new method of romanizing the Chinese language, and created an indexing system for Chinese characters. He was interested in mechanics, he has invented and patented a Chinese typewriter, and several lesser inventions such as a toothbrush with toothpaste dispensing. After 1928 he lived mainly in the United States, where his translations of Chinese texts remained popular for many years. His many works represent an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the East and the West. He was frequently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His first two books, My Country and My People (吾國吾民) (1935) and The Importance of Living (生活的藝術) (1937), written in English in a charming and witty style, brought him international fame. Others include Between Tears and Laughter (啼笑皆非) (1943), The Importance of Understanding (1960, a book of translated Chinese literary passages and short pieces), The Chinese Theory of Art (1967), and the novels Moment in Peking (京華煙雲) (1939) and The Vermillion Gate (朱門) (1953), Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (當代漢英辭典) (1973).

His wife, Lin Tsuifeng (a.k.a. Mrs. Lin Yutang) was a cookbook author whose authentic recipes did a great deal to popularize the art of Chinese cookery in America. Dr. Lin wrote an introduction to one of her and their daughter Lin Hsiang Ju's collections of Chinese recipes.

Dr. Lin was buried at his home in Yangmingshan, Taipei, Taiwan. His home has been turned into a museum, which is operated by Taipei-based Soochow University. The town of Lin's birth, Banzi, has also preserved the original Lin home and turned it into a museum.

Contents

[edit] Works by Lin Yutang

[edit] In English

1930 Letters of a Chinese Amazon and Wartime Essays (Kaiming Press)
1931 Reading in Modern Journalistic Prose (Commercial Press)
1935 The Little Critic: First Series (1930-1932) (Commercial Press)
1935 The Little Critic: Second Series (1933-1935) (Commercial Press)
1935 Confucius Saw Nancy (A Drama) and Essays about Nothing (Commercial Press)
1935 A Nun of Taishan and Other Translations (Commercial Press)
1935 My Country and My People (John Day)
1936 A History of the Press and Public Opinion in China (University of Chicago Press)
1937 The Importance of Living (John Day)
1938 The Wisdom of Confucius (Modern Library)
1939 Moment in Peking (John Day)
1940 With Love and Irony (John Day)
1940 Leaf in the Storm (John Day)
1942 The Wisdom of China and India (Random House)
1943 Between Tears and Laughter (John Day)
1944 The Vigil of Nation (John Day)
1947 The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (John Day)
1948 Chinatown Family (John Day)
1948 The Wisdom of Laotse (Random House)
1949 Peace is in the Heart (Aldus)
1950 On The Wisdom of America (John Day)
1950 Miss Tu ("Heinemann")
1951 Widow, Nun and Courtesan: Three Novelettes From the Chinese Translated and Adapted by Lin Yutang (John Day)
1952 Widow Chuan ("Heinemann")
1952 Famous Chinese Short Stories Retold (John Day)
1953 The Vermilion Gate (John day)
1955 Looking Beyond (aka Unexpected Island) (Prentice)
1957 Lady Wu (World Publishing)
1958 The Secret Name (Farrar)
1959 The Chinese Way of Life (World Publishing)
1959 From Pagan to Christianity (World Publishing)
1960 Imperial Peking: Seven Centuries of China (Crown)
1961 The Red Peony (World Publishing)
1961 The Importance of Understanding ("Heinemann")
1962 The Pleasure of a Nonconformist (World Publishing)
1963 Juniper Loa (World Publishing)
1964 The Flight of Innocents (G.P Putnam)
1967 Chinese Theory of Art (G.P Putnam)
1975 Memoirs of an Octogenarian (posthumous) (Mei Ya)

[edit] In Chinese

1928 Skirmishes (翦拂集)
1930 Kaiming English Books (Commercial Press)
1930 Kaiming English Grammar Based on Notional Categories (Commercial Press)
1933 Philological Essays (语言学论丛)
1934 The Lone Wayfarer (大荒集)
1934/1936 It Seems to Me (我的话), 2 vols.
1965 无所不谈 vol. 1 (Taipei Letter Star)
1966 平心论高鹗 (Taipei Letter Star)
1967 无所不谈 vol. 2 (Taipei Letter Star)
1973 Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (Hongkong Chinese University)
1976 红楼梦人名索引 (Taipei Huagang)

[edit] Works by Lin Tsuifeng ("Mrs. Lin Yutang") and their daughter Lin Hsiang Ju

[edit] In English

1956 Cooking with the Chinese Flavor (Prentice Hall) (co-written with Lin Hsiang Ju)
1960 Secrets of Chinese Cooking (Prentice Hall) (co-written with Lin Hsiang Ju)
1972 Chinese Gastronomy (Pyramid Publications; 1977 reprint, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) (co-written with Lin Hsiang Ju, with an introduction by Dr. Lin Yutang)
1996 The Art of Chinese Cuisine (Tuttle) (a retitled edition of the 1972 book Chinese Gastronomy, co-written with Lin Hsiang Ju, with an introduction by Dr. Lin Yutang)

[edit] External links

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