A Study of Overseas Construction of China National Image in Architecture Writing of Lin Yutang

Abstract

Lin Yutang’s writing of Chinese architecture in My Country and My People is a short chapter, but it reflects his unique studies into Chinese personality and national spirit. Through the study of Lin Yutang’s architectural writing, we can see the Chinese national spirit and image overseas. Many scholars have studied My Country and My People from different dimensions. However, literary writing of Chinese architrave hasn’t been conducted so much since the popularity of Fan Zhongyan’s Notes of Yueyang Tower. And therefore Lin’s writing is conceived to be of high significance through which the Chinese personality has been analyzed thorougly. By conparison and contrast, based on the thoughts of Chinese sages, this paper aims to (1) analyze the marrow of Chinese national spirit through Lin Yutang’s architectural writing and (2) argue how Lin Yutang through his particular English expression of architecture has successfully delivered the image of China overseas, which has thus exerted a far-reaching impact on its overseas transmission. Through exploration and interpretation of Lin Yutan’s writing, the authors aim to excavate Lin’s appropriate in-depth interpretation of Chinese spirit embedded in Chinese architecture abroad in order to modify certain misunderstandings and mistaken cognition with the expectation to gain deeper comprehension of Chinese spirit internationally.