Lin Yutang’s Literary Creation And Orientalism

As one of the representative bilingual writers in modern China,Lin Yutang wrote in the context of East and West all his life.His Chinese-English bilingual writing conveys his unique thinking about the eastern and western cultures,and his works at domestic and abroad also reveal complex cultural orientation.In recent years,the rise of Post-colonialism centered on Said’s Orientalism theory has provided a new perspective and space for the research about Lin Yutang in the new period.When we put Lin Yutang’s bilingual writing at home and abroad in the perspective of Orientalism,we can see that there are not only the dependence on Orientalism,but also the resistance and transcendence in the works.This paper attempts to explore this phenomenon and its causes.The thesis consists of three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction firstly introduces the research status of this topic at domestic and abroad and gives a brief analysis;then summarizes the two theories related to this paper: Orientalism and "self-Orientalization",as well as summarizes the process of Lin Yutang’s writing at home andabroad;finally,states the innovation of this paper.The main body consists of three chapters.The first chapter discusses the influence of Orientalism on Lin Yutang’s early writing and overseas writing.First of all,discusses the influence of Orientalism on Lin Yutang’s early writing,and think that Lin Yutang’s criticism of "national character" is based on the premise of Western discourse,and once took "advanced" western culture as the value standard to judge traditional culture,which is cater to the Western discourse.Then,discusses the influence of Orientalism on Lin Yutang’s overseas writing.It holds that Lin Yutang’s English works embody certain the "self-Orientalization" in content,and analyzed it in combination with the text.The second chapter,analyzed Lin Yutang’s resistance and transcendence to Orientalism.It is mainly include three aspects: Dispel the illusion of stagnant Chinese,reclaimed the right of self-expression of "Aphasia" China;broken the collective imagination of "classical China" in the west,reshaping the image of "Humanistic China";established the value of oriental cultural,eliminating all centers,and explored new ways of multi-cultural exchange.The third chapter discusses the cultural psychology andcontext of Lin Yutang’s bilingual writing from the perspective of Orientalism.It is pointed out that due to the characteristics of "bilingual",Lin Yutang’s writng is bound to be connected with Orientalism.Under this premise,the influence of the complex cultural background and the western environment are the two reasons why his works have both the characteristics of "self-Orientalism" and the tendency of "Anti-orientalism".The last part is the conclusion which overall t he full text.