A Contextual Study of “Mellow” in Lin Yutang’s My Country and My People and Its Two Chinese Versions

Abstract

This paper adopts an approach of contextual analysis to the study of the meaning of “mellow” in Lin Yutang’s My Country and My People and its two Chinese translations. “Mellow” is the first one of the eight words that Lin Yutang uses in his work to describe the character of the Chinese people. “Mellow” is translated differently in two popular Chinese versions of the book. In order to explore both the denotative meanings and connotative meanings of this word, this paper makes a thorough examination of the context in which “mellow” appears in the book. Besides, in reference to the entries in Lin Yutang’s Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage where the word “mellow” is used, the author of this paper reveals the original information that Lin Yutang wanted to convey with “mellow” and then evaluates the two different translations of this word.