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Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 19:1 (2024) ► pp.57–80

A ‘partial’ Orientalist

Lin Yutang’s Famous Chinese Short Stories and the soft power of Chinese tradition

ORCID logo | Victoria University of Wellington
Lin Yutang 林语堂 (1895–1976) was a Chinese American writer based in the USA who produced thirty English works interpreting Chinese philosophy to a western audience between 1936 and 1966. Lin’s critics often accuse him of succumbing to colonial power dynamics between China and the west. Famous Chinese Short Stories: Retold by Lin Yutang (FCSS), published by the John Day Company in 1952, is a particularly revealing case in point. FCSS contains twenty tales selected from ancient Chinese culture, edited, and rewritten in English using western storytelling techniques. In response to critiques of Lin’s works including FCSS as being Orientalist, I re-examine the intricate process of Lin’s rewriting to reveal a more complex stance vis-à-vis Orientalism, characterizing his cultural position as that of a ‘partial’ Orientalist. This term implies that Lin recognizes the potential of Chinese tradition to provide an alternative modernity.
Keywords: Lin Yutang 林语堂 , rewriting, orientalism, soft power, tradition–modernity binary
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Lin Yutang’s reinterpretation of xingling
  • Xingling in FCSS as an agent of modernity
  • The soft power of Chinese tradition in the pursuit of modernity
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 July 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.21043.liu
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