린위탕 한국에 오다, ‘동양ㆍ중국 지식’의 월경적 유통의 내면 －린위탕의 1968년 내한 연설을 중심으로－

Abstract

Based on the historical context of South Korea in the 1960s, this paper studies the two speeches delivered by Lin Yutang at the second IAUP (International Association of University President) conference and the Civil Hall in Seoul during his visit to Korea in 1968. Lin took different strategies according to the different characters of audiences in the two speeches. His speech at the IAUP conference especially emphasized the importance of Oriental (Chinese) thought / philosophy based on the harmony of cultures of the East and West. However, in his speech aimed at the Korean public, he no longer praised the superiority of the Oriental (Chinese) traditional culture, but pointed out its shortcomings, and proposed that the poor oriental developing countries which were still struggling with poverty should “hurry, hurry and hurry” to seize all the opportunities to achieve modernization. Such two “Oriental thought＋modernization” speeches tailored for different groups of audiences were very satisfactory and timely for the Park Jeonghee regime, which was sprinting for the “modernization of the motherland” and “the road of national restoration” at that time. However, in the view of the Korean public, Lin Yutang, who was still the face of “East-West Bridge” and “Oriental Wisdom” at the IAUP conference, unexpectedly advocated modernization strongly when standing in front of them. This would inevitably lead to confusion in the audience’s understanding. Although it is essentially different on the context and connotation between Lin’s traditional Oriental (Chinese) thought and modernization and the official discourse of the Park Jeonghee government, both are likely to be accepted by the public as the same voice in the end, due to the latter’s strong power in Korea. At the same time, regardless of the actual content of the speech, Lin Yutang could won the enthusiastic applause of the Korean public with the world fame he had always enjoyed.