Liberal cosmopolitan : Lin Yutang and middling Chinese modernity / / by Qian Suoqiao.

• Superior document: Ideas, history, and modern China, v. 3
• Author: Qian, Suoqiao.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Ideas, history, and modern China ; v. 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (282 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Chinese modernity discourses have been dominated by nationalism and revolutionary radicalism in much of the 20th century, but liberal cosmopolitanism has always been an important force in modern Chinese intellectuality, though a much neglected topic in modern Chinese studies. This book is a cross-cultural critique on the problem of the liberal cosmopolitan in modern Chinese intellectuality in light of Lin Yutang’s literary and cultural practices across China and America. It includes comparative reference to other discourses of major literary and intellectual figures such as Zhang Zhidong, Liang Qichao, Gu Hongming, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Pearl S. Buck, Agnes Smedley and Edgar Snow. It also demonstrates that a liberal cosmopolitan road, which suggests a middling Chinese modernity, is both possible and desirable.

Table of Contents

Introduction: re-discovering Lin Yutang in the post-Mao era -- Chinese modernity: nationalism, imperialism, and the liberal cosmopolitan alternative -- Enlightenment and national salvation: the politics of a liberal nationalist -- "Little critic:" "returned" professionals and the cosmopolitan modern -- A cross-cultural aesthetics of life: translating "xingling" into "self-expression," "xianshi" into "leisure" and "humor" into "youmo" -- Oriental other: the business of translating Chinese and American cultures -- Cosmopolitan difference: critique of imperialism and debating "Chinahands" -- Conclusion: what a liberal cosmopolitan alternative means for contemporary Chinese intellectual dilemma -- Appendix. Chronology of Lin Yutang.