Lin Yutang (Lín Yǔtāng, 林语堂), 1895-1976, was a renowned Chinese philosopher, philologist, translator, political spokesperson, inventor, novelist and interpreter of Chinese culture for Western readers. His struggle to accommodate his cultural heritage of Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folklore with his Christian properly basic beliefs lasted almost a half-a-century. Ironically, during this period, while he became the darling of American readers, his writing suffered condemnation in China for his anti-communist stance. Following the demise of Deng Xiaoping’s influence in the mid-1990s, Lin has once again become popular in China including the production of a 44 episode television series in Hong Kong based on his novel Moment in Peking. Lin’s books, The Importance of Living and From Pagan to Christian bear witness to his faith dilemma whilst his speeches on ‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’, ‘Materialism As a Faith’ and ‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’ impart a wisdom forgotten by both Eastern and Western cultures in their race to embrace materialist values. This paper focuses on these three speeches to give insight into the impact of religion on one prominent East Asian person without making assumptions about the effect of religion on East Asia as a whole.

1. The Impact of Religion on East Asian
Culture
Religion in the Life of Lin
YutangR. Joy Ricci, PhD Candidate, Centre for Asian Studies, University of Adelaide

2. Introduction/Abstract
Lin Yutang (Lín Y t ngǔ ā , 林语堂 ), 1895-1976, was a
renowned Chinese philosopher, philologist, translator,
political spokesperson, inventor, novelist and
interpreter of Chinese culture for Western readers.
His struggle to accommodate his cultural heritage of
Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folklore with his
Christian properly basic beliefs lasted almost a half-a-
century.
Ironically, during this period, while he became the
darling of American readers, his writing suffered
condemnation in China for his anti-communist stance.

3. Following the demise of Deng Xiaoping’s influence in
the mid-1990s, Lin has once again become popular in
China including the production of a 44 episode
television series in Hong Kong based on his novel
Moment in Peking.
Lin’s books, The Importance of Living and From
Pagan to Christian bear witness to his faith dilemma
whilst his speeches on ‘The Chinese Cultural
Heritage’, ‘Materialism As a Faith’ and ‘Chinese
Humanism and the Modern World’ impart a wisdom
forgotten by both Eastern and Western cultures in
their race to embrace materialist values.
This paper focuses on these three speeches to give
insight into the impact of religion on one prominent
East Asian person without making assumptions about
the effect of religion on East Asia as a whole.

4. Aim
My aim is to show that religion was writ large in the life of
Lin Yutang and that through his writing he provided us
with insight into thought processes that challenge faith
development for individuals living in a global society.
I encourage you to draw your own conclusions about the
extent to which specific insights for one person might hold
true for global society as a whole.

5. A succinct timeline of the religious journey of
Lin Yutang
‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’, 1961, lecture
at Salon de Actos, Mar del Plata, Argentina
‘Materialism As a Faith’, 2 May, 1960, lecture at
Royal Canadian Club, Montreal
‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’,
24 October, 1961, lecture at Westminster
College, Missouri
Conclusions: drawing together the threads of
Lin’s thoughts based on these three papers.
Overview

6. Chronological Journey
1985 1912 1957
1976
I______I_____________________________I_______I
Birth Rejection Taoism/Confucianism Return Death
Christianity Christianity
Born into a
Christian family
Father: Presbyterian Minister
Sister/mentor died
Entered university
Rejected Christianity
Rejection of Christianity
Void filled by reflection on
Confucianist/Taoist thought
Humanism
1954/55 Singapore affair
wife’s illness
Return to Christianity
1959 From Pagan to Christian
Adet’s suicide
Strokes
Death
Childhood
Christian
Rejection
Return
Birth
Death

7. ‘The Chinese Cultural Heritage’*
• ‘There are two main streams of thought that
have gone into the making of the Chinese
national character – Confucianism and Taoism.
… their realism, their common sense, their
patience, their toleration, their emphasis on
human relations, and a certain soft mellowness
in their character.’*
• ‘The Chinese character was formed by the
strength of Confucianism [yang], happily
softened by the grace of Taoism [yin].’*
* Lin, Yutang, 1962, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist,
Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, pp. 67-81.

8. ‘Confucius concerned himself with man,
Laotse with the secrets of the universe.’ *
Confucianist: rationalist, realist, positivist
‘Confucianism believes in progress, in government, and
education, and continuous self-improvement.’*
*Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, p. 70
CULTURE NATURE
Kong Fu Zi ( 孔夫子 )
551 B.C. – 479 B.C
Laozi ( 老子 )
4th
C BCE

9. Taoist: mystical, romantic, and a tad cynical*
‘Taoism denies and derides progress and civilization, and, like
Rousseau, believes in going back to nature. In education it
teaches laissez-faire in leaving the people alone.’
* Lin, 1962, p. 71
‘In education it believes in keeping the innocence of the heart.
The child’s big round eyes are a symbol of that purity of heart.’*

10. Confucianis
m
Yang
Prose
Mundane
Taoism
Yin
Poetry
Imaginativ
e
Confucianism/Taoism
‘Thus the contrast is almost perfect.’
Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, p. 71
STRENGTH
Good government
Continuous self-
improvement
Realism
Common sense
Emphasis on human
relationships
Positivist
Rationalist
PRACTICAL
GRACE
Patience
Tolerance
Soft mellowness
Laissez-faire
Mystic
Romanticist
Mild cynic
re. world affairs
AESTHETIC
Balance of these two is the key to Chinese character.

11. ‘Materialism As a Faith’*
• Lin claims that: ‘Everyone operates on one
form of faith or another.’*
• He defines faith as: ‘belief in something on
inadequate evidence.’*
• ‘In life, faith is again taking some things for
granted based on what we believe to be true,
though it may never be conclusively proved.’*
• Post WWII is ‘a materialist age’.*
*Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, pp. 90-98

12. A materialist ‘has a set of material values [and] these
count more than spiritual values.’
‘All life ultimately can be explained by psycho-
chemical forces; that human life can be explained as
rocks and minerals can be explained.’
‘In the field of national welfare there is a belief in
economic witchcraft – that the dollar will solve every
problem.’
‘We seem to have lost something, the freshness, the
tintinnabulations and ultimations of immortality – of a
Wordsworth.’
We ‘have gone very far, far beyond beauty and
harmony, and the gift of seeing life deep and complete
and whole.’ (Can we blame Darwin and Marx?)
Lin, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, pp. 92-95.

13. Marxism is ‘materialist method carried to extreme
demanding that [humans] be considered as animals
and, by adopting a scientific approach to society one
must be objectively amoral.’
‘Everybody believes in something, nobody can believe
in nothing. When the communists declare their
disbelief in God, they promptly set about to create
gods for their own use, demanding the same
unthinking worship of these gods, the parade of their
gods’ portraits, the same use of Trinity (Marx the
Father, Lenin the son, and Stalin the Holy Ghost), the
same litany, the same orthodoxy, the same persecution
of difference of opinion.’
Lin, 1962, pp. 96-98.

14. ‘Chinese Humanism and the Modern World’*
Lin calls post-WWII ‘an age of confusion, of unsettled
values and shaken beliefs …We do not know what we
want and where we stand. We understand more and
more and believe less and less. We do not know how
to differentiate between essentials and non-essentials.’
Lin wrote that our underlying fear and confusion
stemmed from a lack of a ‘philosophy of living …[a]
rather horrifying spectacle of specialized knowledge
without a tolerably deep and satisfactory sensitized
philosophy of living.’
For Lin, philosophy in the past was the ‘unifying of all
knowledge’ whereas now the philosophy of modernity
is ‘fragmentizing knowledge’, ‘atomizing knowledge.’
Lin, 1962, pp. 99-106

15. ‘Chinese humanism means a just conception of the
ends of life, a sharp focus on the true end of living and
the weeding out of non-essentials. There are usually
too many side issues of no importance.’
For Lin, Chinese humanism is ‘We have this life here
and now. We accept it and see what we can do with it.’
Confucian teaching was all about ‘human
relationships’, however, the ‘absence of religion makes
it a little sad … makes it what I call a sensitized
philosophy of living.’
‘Human life is vastly complex, and the problem of all
problems is the moral relationships between men … of
man’s life, his home, family, and garden.’
Lin, 1962, pp. 101-105

16. The House of Lin Yutang

17. The Importance of Living is
best expressed by Su Tung-
po (Su Shi), (1037 - 1101):
O sweep thy yard, but spare the
mossy spots!
Let petals bedeck thy steps with
purple dots
As in a painting. What’s more
wonderful:
Some pine trees –
Some bamboos –
And apricots!
Lin, 1962, p. 106.
When a friend arrives that thou hast so admired,
As by some idle nothing in common aspired,
Ask him to stay for a carefree half-day:
And drink when happy –
Sing when drunk –
Sleep when tired.

18. Conclusions
The amount of time, thought and effort that he invested in
explaining his shifts in belief demonstrates the importance
he placed on religion.
Lin Yutang undertook a circular faith journey: starting with
Christianity and ended with Christianity albeit a deepened
faith form that evolved during his adult life.
Taoism and Confucianism – balanced and complimentary
– tempered his Christian faith.
Chinese cultural heritage drew Lin towards a practical
mysticism that rejected the atheism of communism.
Lin’s story reflects the complexity of faith development for
an individual living in a global environment.

19. Thank you to my Supervisors
• Dr Gerry Groot
• Dr Songping Jin