Abstract

The article reconstructs selected motifs in the philosophy of Lin Yutang, a twentieth-century Chinese thinker, translator and editor, especially popular in the West, undertaken, as it were, on the margins of his work to explain and popularize Chinese culture and philosophy in the West. Lin reflects on issues such as how to effectively and accurately explain a radically alien civilization to the Western-educated reader, in his or her own language, and who can appoint himself as the representative of Chinese culture at all? As a bilingual author, Lin very accurately shows the state of suspension between two cultures, characteristic of an intercultural interpreter who attempts to simultaneously move within two disproportionate, culturally determined conceptual schemes.

Highlights

  • W artykule rekonstruuję wybrane wątki refleksji Lin Yutanga, popularnego, zwłaszcza na Zachodzie, dwudziestowiecznego chińskiego myśliciela, tłumacza i redaktora, podejmowanej niejako na marginesie jego pracy na rzecz objaśniania i popularyzowania chińskiej kultury i filozofii na Zachodzie

  • Lin is an unusual figure in many respects – he was a great erudite and was interested in a variety of topics, which resulted in his achievements in many fields. Educated in both China and the West, Lin was a bilingual author. He published primarily in English 5 with an eye toward a Western readership, devoting much of his life to the work to deepen the understanding of Chinese culture by participants in Anglo-Saxon culture

  • In the time when the average American was not familiar with either Chinese culture or philosophy, Lin played a huge role as a cross-cultural translator between China and the West

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Summary

Funding Acknowledgments

The funding was generously provided by the National Science Center in Poland (project number: 2018/29/N/HS1/02681). Introducing Chinese Philosophy to Western Readers – Lin Yutang as a Cross-cultural Interpreter. Creative CREATIVE Perspectives on Culture, 4(35), pp. Jako autor dwujęzyczny Lin nader celnie ukazuje stan zawieszenia, stan bycia pomiędzy, charakterystyczny dla tłumacza międzykulturowego, który podejmuje próbę jednoczesnego poruszania się w obrębie dwóch niewspółmiernych, kulturowo zdeterminowanych schematów pojęciowych. S Ł O WA KLUCZE : Lin Yutang, kultura chińska, przekład międzykulturowy, filozofia porównawcza

The specter of Eurocentrism
Lin as a cultural interpreter 4
Creation of China
Disparity between culture systems
Philosophizing in a comparative perspective
Summary
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