My Beloved Father Lin Yutang

By Lin Taiyi

I returned home from Columbia University only to find my mother weeping silently, while my father was helpless and speechless, with a pipe in his mouth. My father was heavily in debt after years of family savings as well as money borrowed from friends and banks had been invested in his long-held ambition,namely to invent a Chinese typewriter. Selling off our apartment and furniture was the only way out.

Since the age of 23, my father, the literary giant Lin Yutang, has been dreaming about inventing a Chinese typewriter that is easily accessible to any untrained hand. The key to inventing a typewriter like that lies in the reclassification of Chinese characters in order to make an easy-to-use keyboard. In 1931, my father,at the age of 36, who believed that the problem of reclassification had already been solved, left Shanghai in haste for America to discuss the design plan in detail with foreign engineers. His tentative thought turned out to be infeasible, and, almost penniless, he came back home. Still, the dream of inventing a Chinese typewriter was always lingering in his mind. Later on,after writing several bestsellers, tens of thousands of dollars were built up in his savings. With these funds,his old dream was rekindled.

Problems cropped up one after another. Every component was supposed to have an assembly drawing before being hand-made, which meant that numerous skilled engineers and assemblers needed to be hired and that the estimated expenditure might be exceeded.Yet, with all the money that had already been invested,my father felt reluctant to give up.

With my father's unremitting efforts, the first prototype finally came out. Press merely three buttons,and a Chinese character would emerge on paper. This new Chinese typewriter was far more convenient than the old one designed by the Commercial Press, which was cumbersome and unfriendly to green hands.

This newly-invented typewriter received considerable attention.My father held a news conference to introduce it and several newspapers published stories at great lengths about this new invention. For three days in a row,our house was open to the public,with a continuous stream of people paying a visit. Zhao Yuanren, a prominent linguist, commented:“This typewriter is a remarkable invention.”

In 1948, my father signed a contract with the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, which paid twenty thousand dollars for his patent. By that time, China was plagued by civil war, so they did not start production of this newly invented typewriter. It took years for my father to get out of debt.Yet, with no complaint or regret,my father just said softly but encouragingly, “Only by cherishing big dreams can one make progress.”

Thirty years later, with the advent of the computer era, the indexing system for Chinese characters, as well as the keyboard,researched and developed by my father has been adopted by the MiTAC Technology Corporation as one of the input methods for computers. In this way, my father's dream was finally fulfilled.

Throughout his life, my father has confronted numerous challenges. My grandfather, a poor village clergy member and brimming with grand ideals,borrowed money from friends and relatives and sent my father to St.John's University in Shanghai.After getting married, my parents moved to America. During his study at Harvard University for his master's degree, my mother was hospitalized and underwent surgery twice, and almost all their savings were exhausted. When it came to such an extent that the money left could only buy a jar of Old Man granola, my father had to ask his own father for help in an effort to maintain a basic standard of living and continue his study.My father is simple and sincere in personality who is always willing to trust others. Once, he was framed by an American engineer he hired,who claimed out of jealousy that he was the one who invented the typewriter and even threatened to sue my father. Luckily, the lawyer we hired settled this issue.

Harvard University, in my father's view, can be narrowed down into the Widenow Library1furnished with millions of books.He compared his journey seeking knowledge in the library to that of an agile monkey scooping up nuts in the midst of the forest. He also encourages his children to be voracious readers, making an effort to spot outstanding writers themselves.

Note: 1. Located in Harvard University, Widenow Library is one of the oldest existing libraries and the largest university library in the world.

My father takes an interest in everything, big or small. He would develop his own theories and then share them with us. Servants were no longer around when my parents moved to America due to the financial strain, and that was a time when my father developed a particular interest in polishing shoes. At one time, he would stand by the roadside and observe carefully how the shoe boy made the leather shoes clean and shiny. Later on, he developed his own shoe-polishing theory,demonstrating to us the whole process and giving us several handy tips on how to apply shoe polish properly in the meantime. His gesture exactly resembled the very shoe boy on the roadside, a piece of soft cloth slapping the shoes rhythmically from every side, which made him none other than a skillful shoe cleaner. The shoes shone like mirrors under his handling, and my father was perfectly proud.

My father's study was named“Integrity Corner.” When asked,he merely answered that “I never curry favor with others” and that “I wouldn't say the moon is quadrate this week and round next week. I have a pretty good memory.” These words were spoken by my father in the 1930s, and such an attitude has been maintained well into his old age. All his life, he cared little about what people think of him, which might account for the reason why his works have received wide public recognition. His essays are suffused with sincerity and realness, and his genuine emotions and thoughts are fully presented.

My father's philosophy of life can be briefly summarized in his own words as follows: “The non-radical spirit can be regarded as one of the highest ideals and deserves to be pursued by all mankind. A nonradical revolutionist is far from being a new broom which attempts to wipe out everything that belongs to the old world and makes every nook and cranny spotless. By the same token, a non-radical abstainer would drink a cup or two while a vegetarian would have a piece of steak every once a while. Is it worth it if a scientist makes great scientific discoveries but loses his or her humanity? Let human nature take its course, and you will grasp the essence of great wisdom.”

Perhaps my father's sense of humor derives from his philosophy of life and insights on human nature. He is fully aware of the fact that human nature is a complex of paradoxes characterized by ambivalence and contradictions,and he is always ready to extend mercy to all mankind. In this sense,his humor is by no means to elicit a sense of embarrassment from or inflict damage on any person.On the contrary, his propensity to banter merely attempts to add a tinge of humor to this transitory and miserable life.

My father even portrays a great sense of humor under unfavorable circumstances. In 1954, he became the president of Nanyang University, but his rivals tried every means to bring him down, including launching offensive comments against him in newspapers and tabloids. A photo was published on a tabloid with the caption “Lin Yutang's Brother—A Drug Addict and Grave Digger.”I was filled with indignation at the slander, swearing that they had gone too far. But after taking over and having a look, my father said laughingly, “‘My brother' and I look alike.”

Throughout his life, my father has been brimming with great dreams and big hopes. For me, he is the greatest father in the world.

[FromSelective Periodicals from Taiwan and Hong Kong Literature(Abridged Version). Translation:Huang Mengyuan]

Note:

Lin Yutang (1895-1976) was a Chinese inventor, linguist,novelist, philosopher, and translator. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.