A Study On The Integration Of Chinese And Western Culture In Lin Yutang’s Novels

In the history of modern Chinese cultural exchange,a large number of scholars have devoted themselves to the cause of cultural exchange.Lin Yutang has become one of the most successful with his view of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.“One mind seeks the learning of ancients and moderns;two legs staddle the cultures of East and West” is his slogan.Lin Yutang regards the purpose as the base of literary creation.He tries to construct a harmonious and beautiful life for people in his works.He believed that Chinese traditional spiritual civilization based on life and humanity combined with western modern material civilization to reach the perfect state.This paper analyzes the connotation and the expression of Lin Yutang’s view of Chinese and Western culture integration.The introduction of the paper expounds the research significance of this article,summarizes the research results of Lin Yutang’s cultural concept in the academic circle,and combines the research results to discover the blank left in Lin Yutang’s research.Grasp the Chinese and Western cultural phenomena of Lin Yutang’s novels and analyze Lin Yutang’s understanding and integration of Chinese traditional culture and Christian culture.From the point of the Confucian culture,the Taoist culture and Buddhist culture,the first chapter mainly discusses the spirit of traditional culture embodied in seven novels written overseas by Lin Yutang,such as Moment in Peking,A Leaf in the Storm,Chinatown Family,The Vermilion Gate,The Unexpected Island,The Red Peony and Juniper Loa.With the analysis the reflection of Chinese traditional culture in the material Western,the narration of this chapter presents Lin Yutang’s contribution to save westerners’ unhealthy spirit.To show the integration in Lin Yutang’s novels which was born in the collision between Chinese Traditional culture and Western Christian Spirit and Modern European Thoughts,the second chapterintroduces the View on women,Christian theology and Expressionism which reveal in his works.Then show the Cultural composition of Lin Yutang’s cultural integration and clarify the cross section between Chinese culture and Western culture.The third chapter summarizes the process of reference and absorption of Chinese traditional culture and the alienation and return to Christianity through his novels.This presents the course of Lin Yutang’s cultural choices,and clarifies the origin of Lin Yutang’s view of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.At the same time,the value and inspiration of Lin Yutang’s view of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures are analyzed objectively.