Our country and our people

Author: Lin Yutang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-02-01
Features: The Chinese Character (Wu Guo Yu Wu Min) is a renowned English work by Lin Yutang that created a significant impact in the United States. With a candid and humorous tone and wise and perceptive language, Lin eloquently reveals the moral values, spiritual state, and aspirations of the Chinese people, as well as Chinese society, arts, and life interests. In this book, he leverages his advantage of having "two feet in both Eastern and Western cultures" and often views issues through a comparative lens of East and West. The book was published in 1935—just before Lin's family traveled to the United States—by The John Day Company of Pearl S. Buck and her husband. Pearl S. Buck personally wrote the preface, praising it as a "true, deep, comprehensive, and important book about China." T.F. Opie, a U.S. book critic, even remarked, "Whether you want to understand ancient or modern China, reading just one The Chinese Character is enough."