Chapter One. Introduction: Re-Discovering Lin Yutang In The Post-Mao Era

Abstract

This introductory chapter discusses the re-birth of Lin Yutang in the 1980s China during the decade of reform and opening up, in which Chinese intellectual discourses began to shake off the Maoist dogma and re-introduce and translate all kinds of Western discourses to China. The rediscovery of Lin Yutang very much occupied a central stage in the reform discourses in the 1980s. The studies on alternative Chinese modernity in light of Lin Yutang's literary and practices follows in a sense the cross-cultural cosmopolitan approach put forward in the 1980s cultural zeal environment, but at the same time attempts to go beyond the limitations of the 1980s intellectual discourses. The chapter presents an overview of how the other chapters of the book are organized. A fruitful understanding of Lin Yutang's literary practices in Chinese modernity must go beyond the limitations of the 1980s intellectual discourses.Keywords: China; Chinese modernity; Lin Yutang