The Choices Of Life: An Analysis Of The Characters In Moment In Peking From The Perspective Of Heidegger's Dasein

Moment in Peking is one of the famous novels written by Dr. Lin Yutang, who made a lot of contribution bridging the gap between the Chinese and the western culture. In the novel, Dr. Lin Yutang introduces Chinese society and culture to the West through the lives of men and women, who live and try to create a meaningful life in this world. Ever since the publication of the novel, its philosophical meaning has received much attention from critics and readers. The novel and its characters reflect Lin Yutang's deep concern for human life. This papers aims to analyze the characters in this novel from the perspective of Heidegger's Dasein.As a classical novel, Moment in Peking has a lot of characters whose experiences provide a comprehensive view of Chinese society, culture and family life during that period. This paper deals with the lives of four characters:Yao Mulan, Yao Tijen, Sun Mannia and Kong Lifu. Being thrown into this world, all of the four characters are influenced by a particular social historical and family environment. Following the public trend, they have inauthentic lives. However, Yao Mulan and Kong Lifu can find their true self and start new lives while Sun Mannia and Yao Tijen lose themselves due to total absorption in tradition or excessive pursuit of pleasures.This paper contains five parts. The first part is the introduction, which introduces Lin Yutang's life, writing career, research achievements about this novel, and an explanation of Heidegger's Dasein. The second part is about the social and family background in which the four characters exist, with an aim to see what kind of person they become through the influence of social and family background. The third part is a detailed analysis of inauthentic lives of the four characters, with Mulan yielding into the conventions of marriage, Mannia confining with the conventions of traditional womanhood, Lifu having to deal with worldly affairs and Tijen pursuing pleasures excessively. The fourth part classifies the four characters into two groups:due to their free and courageous spirit, Yao Mulan and Kong Lifu can follow the call of conscience, make resolutions, achieve authenticity and create meaningful lives of their own; but Sun Mannia and Yao Tijen fail to find their true self because of their lack of the ability to become aware of conscience or make resolutions to have authentic lives. The last part is the conclusion, which summarizes the whole thesis and points out the significance of analyzing the novel form the perspective of Heidegger's Dasein. Through a philosophical reading of Moment in Peking, this author aims to show Lin Yutang's understanding of human life and his opinions on the possibilities of authentic lives.