Lin Yutang 林语堂
Lin Yutang was the next to last of twelve children of a Chinese Presbyterian minister in a small town in the mountains, sixty miles inland from Amoy. He was educated in English at St John's in Shanghai. He studied at Tsinghua University from 1916 to 1919, during which time he encountered his Chinese heritage at its most concentrated.
In 1919, at the age of 23, Lin Yutang received a half-scholarship to attend Harvard. He was married at the time and moved with his wife to the United States. At Harvard he received his Masters degree in comparative literature studying under literary scholar Bliss Perry and humanist Irving Babbitt. Next to T.S. Eliot, Lin has been called the most influential of Babbitt's students.
After Harvard Lin moved to France to work at the YMCA, and from there he went on to the University of Jena in Leipzig, Germany, where he completed his doctorate in linguistics. Lin returned to China to teach for thirteen years. He was a professor of English literature at the University of Beijing from 1923 - 1926, and served as Dean at Amoy University in 1926.
From the summer of 1927, he devoted himself to writing for the popular press and editing three literary fortnightlies in Shanghai between 1929 and 1935. Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck encouraged him to write a book explaining China to the West. To do this, he retired to the mountains in the summer of 1934. What he brought back from the mountains was the publishing sensation My Country and My People (1935), which hit the top of the New York Times bestseller list.
Lin was called to Singapore in 1954 to be Chancellor of the newly founded but not yet operational Nanyang University. For political and other reasons it lasted only 6 months.
Lin and his wife moved in 1965 to Taiwan. In 1975 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, which to his regret he did not win.
Lin was a prolific writer. During his life his wrote almost 40 books, including best sellers My Country and My People (吾国与吾民 – 1935), Moment in Peking (京华烟云 – 1939), and A Leaf in the Storm (风声鹤唳 – 1941).
He died in Hong Kong on March 25, 1976.
In 1919, at the age of 23, Lin Yutang received a half-scholarship to attend Harvard. He was married at the time and moved with his wife to the United States. At Harvard he received his Masters degree in comparative literature studying under literary scholar Bliss Perry and humanist Irving Babbitt. Next to T.S. Eliot, Lin has been called the most influential of Babbitt's students.
After Harvard Lin moved to France to work at the YMCA, and from there he went on to the University of Jena in Leipzig, Germany, where he completed his doctorate in linguistics. Lin returned to China to teach for thirteen years. He was a professor of English literature at the University of Beijing from 1923 - 1926, and served as Dean at Amoy University in 1926.
From the summer of 1927, he devoted himself to writing for the popular press and editing three literary fortnightlies in Shanghai between 1929 and 1935. Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck encouraged him to write a book explaining China to the West. To do this, he retired to the mountains in the summer of 1934. What he brought back from the mountains was the publishing sensation My Country and My People (1935), which hit the top of the New York Times bestseller list.
Lin was called to Singapore in 1954 to be Chancellor of the newly founded but not yet operational Nanyang University. For political and other reasons it lasted only 6 months.
Lin and his wife moved in 1965 to Taiwan. In 1975 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, which to his regret he did not win.
Lin was a prolific writer. During his life his wrote almost 40 books, including best sellers My Country and My People (吾国与吾民 – 1935), Moment in Peking (京华烟云 – 1939), and A Leaf in the Storm (风声鹤唳 – 1941).
He died in Hong Kong on March 25, 1976.
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