Lin Yutang’s Identity Crisis And Cultural Choices

"One mind seeks the learning of ancients and moderns;Two legs staddle the cultures of East and West" was a couplet written by himself for his fortieth birthday.Lin Yutang was a singular person integral to cultural exchanges between China and the west in the 20th century as well as a controversial master in the world of letters.Stepping into the shoes of Hu Shi during the May Fourth,he played an active role in the vernacular movement;then working side by side with Lu Xun,Qian Xuantong etc.,he cried out for "Europeanization for the sake of reforming national character".In the 1930s,Lin underwent a reversal of his radical position during the May Fourth period but rather advocated essays that was self-centered and leisurely in tones,and a reform of prose style by promoting "quotation" style.Following his residence in the other shore of the ocean,he proceeded with English writings in the literary style in the 1930s,with less humor but more cultural self-consciousness.Lin Yutang went through three times of about-turns because of his identity crisis,which is the vantage point for us today to untangle his "a tangle of contradictions" unresolved by himself.The first two about-turns resulted from thoughts,politics and culture,while the last about-turn was caused by the shift of Chinese and western cultural contexts.As anThe first chapter mainly discusses why Lin Yutang choiced "New" to solve the identity crisis between "innovation" and "conservative".Lin Yutang knew little about Chinese traditional culture at that time,who was effected by the "elite worship" and "ancestor worship" double pressure,through searching for "Oneness" so as to solve his own identity crisis.In the second chapter,I try to discuss Lin’s choice between " leaving the world" and "entering the world",explaining why Lin Yutang selected retiring intrinsic causes even if the revolutionary literature became the mainstream in the thirties.Lin Yutang hosted "The Analects ","Jen Chien Shih" and "Yu Chou Feng"(cosmic wind)to create its own private space,and through searching for identity of the "differences" at the edge of the era with their own voice,and which constructed "leisure" discourse to help him solve the crisis of self-identity.The third chapter mainly examines Lin Yutang’s translingual writing.Lin Yutang continued his thirties years personal writing style overseas,but "leisurely" style was his consistent pursuit.Lin solved his identity crisis through building his "heterotopias" mirror image.In short,Lin Yutang’s identity crisis is the origin in "bundle of contrasts".Although identity crisis ia a common problem of modern Chinese intellectuals need to face,yet the solution to the crisis and the different decision effect intellectuals final road.Lin Yutang took a decidedly different roads from other intellectuals,thus unlocking Lin Yutang’s "bundle of contrasts" provides reference for us to discuss intellectual soul world.