Yu Dan, a 41-year-old veteran media scholar at Beijing Normal
University, is described as "a mix of unmixable elements" by her
friends.
As the dean of the TV and Cinema Studies Department of the
School of Media and Arts of the university, Yu is better known by
TV and movie professionals as an experienced media strategist and
consultant for a roster of mass media groups including China
Central Television (CCTV) and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp
(China).
But Yu calls herself "a big fan of pop music idols" such as Jay
Chow and the Nanquan Mama, an enthusiast of Chinese history and
classic literature and a good performer of the Kunqu Opera.
On top of that, she is unofficially recognized as "the chieftain
of the fun-seeking club of the School of Media and Arts at Beijing
Normal University."
She still manages to find time for suburban hiking activities
with her students despite her "nerving-stretching schedule."
Previously a behind-the-scenes media expert, she has now
attracted nationwide attention for her popular televised lecture
series about the Analects of Confucius.
During the National Day holidays last month, for the first time,
she appeared on the Lecture Room a popular but controversial
programme aired on channel 10 of CCTV.
Encouraged by the warm welcome of TV audiences and a large
number of netizens who have given bountiful kudos to Yu's
"enlightening lectures" in their blogs and online forums, Wan Wei,
producer of the Lecture Room, decided to rerun Yu's
well-received lectures over the past week.
At a book signing and book launch ceremony yesterday in western
Beijing, Yu stunned the media and the public with a new book about
her readings of the Confucian bible, released in a run of more than
600,000 copies the largest number of copies run on the Chinese
mainland in recent years.
Reinterpreting the classics
The new book includes both the content of the TV lectures and the
original text from the
Analects of Confucius.
The book is another item on her long list of academic papers and
books about movies, TV programming, TV station operations, news
anchors, TV new reporting and media competition strategies.
"My book is far from a highly academic publication with precise
word-for-word explanations of the Confucian classic. It is only a
collection of my personal readings of the ancient sage's thoughts
which I have accumulated over decades," Yu told China
Daily.
"I am not an expert in Confucian studies, but rather, a media
scholar. It is only that, as a great fan of Chinese classics such
as the Book of Songs, the Analects of Confucius
and Zhuang Tzu, I am willing to share with people my
understanding of these centuries-old pearls of wisdom."
Yu's televised lectures won the hearts of mass audiences who
uploaded the video clips and quotes from her lectures on their
blogs and online forums.
Wang Yiwang, a Chinese netizen who has a blog on www.baidu.com, posted: "What
professor Yu said in her TV lectures is just like a remedy for our
soul... Many people today are losing their way spiritually when
confronted with a rapidly changing world... From her talks, I have
learned to look at my life and the status quo in a new
perspective."
For another netizen posting his blog on
"Listening to her lectures each day was the happiest moment of
the day during that period of time After watching the TV lectures,
I have suddenly found that what Confucius said are simple truths
that are not at all lofty but can be applied to my daily life."
Li Yan, editor-in-chief of China Publishing House, told local
media they knew the book would be a hit.
"After doing careful market research, we have decided to publish
600,000 copies of the book. We believe Yu Dan's personal charisma
and her novel readings of the Confucian classic, which is no doubt
hard to decode for average readers, will certainly boost the book's
popularity," she said.
In fact, before lecturing to TV audiences this October, Yu, who
studied ancient Chinese literature for her bachelor's degree in the
mid-1980s, has already shared her thoughts with many teachers and
students at Beijing Normal University and other colleges in the
Chinese capital over the past decade.
Apart from her role as a doctoral tutor for students majoring in
TV and cinema studies, Yu teaches undergraduates about classic
Chinese literature at Beijing Normal University.
Almost every September, freshmen newly enrolled at Beijing
Normal University would meet a "pretty and graceful female teacher"
at a spacious auditorium where she would give mesmerizing
orientation lectures, Xu Shanshan, a graduate of the university,
wrote in her blog.
"Four years from now, I will be able to recall the warmth and
excitement I felt when listening to her lectures," Xu wrote.
"She impressed me so much with her deft use of news stories,
folk tales, anecdotes about daily life, a bulk of quotes from such
classic as the Analects of Confucius, and, more
importantly, her personal but insightful ideas about life and
society. Looking at her from a distance, I was deeply moved by her
passion and courage."
Living by simple truths
 |
"At first, I shared my thoughts only with my students in the
classroom. When I was first invited years ago to give a lecture to
some 800 audience members in my university, I was not sure what
their reactions were," Yu recalled.
"After I ended my first speech, I was greeted with thunderous
applause, and, to my surprise, I found that many of my audiences
were clapping their hands excitedly with tears in the eyes. That
scene is always fresh in my mind and it gives me a strong sense of
commitment."
Happy about the warm responses from her audiences, Yu keeps
rearranging her lectures about classics and life. Each time she
delivers them, she would add something new to make them more
appealing.
"What attracts my audiences is not my personality but rather,
the wisdom hidden in those dust-laden classics," Yu said.
At the beginning of a new century, many people are facing too
many choices and value conflicts. They are simply disoriented. They
must find something to live by, Yu said.
"I have found that an increasing number of contemporary Chinese
scholars, writers, artists, business people and common folks are
all seeking wisdom from traditional Chinese culture. This
phenomenon may partly reveal the reason for the unexpected
popularity of my lectures about the Analects of
Confucius," she said.
In her eyes, Confucius the Sage is "an amiable elderly
intellectual who is always in action to actualize his idealistic
ideas about life and society."
Yu claimed that she has been living by all she has learned in
history books and Confucian and Taoist classics.
"Those philosophical, inspiring ideas and arguments about human
existence and societal life, as I see it, should not be regarded
merely as interesting quotes, glistening with wisdom but of little
use for day-to-day living. Instead, they are simple truths that can
penetrate the barrier of time and space and shed new light for the
future direction of every living human," she said.
Every one of us will have sorrows, setbacks and frustration in
our daily life, but we cannot always take control of these
situations, she said.
"More often, we can readjust our way of thinking and tactics so
that we can survive the annoying situations while maintaining a
peaceful mind. For that matter, those simple truths can help us a
lot," said Yu, who began learning Confucian classics at age 4.
Yu admitted that she lived a lonely and somewhat painful
childhood along with her grandma in a courtyard in Beijing when her
parents and grandpa, victims of political turmoil in the 1960s,
were exiled to rural areas thousands of miles from Beijing.
But now, Yu is grateful for the early education she got during
those lonely years.
"As the only daughter to politically incorrect parents, I failed
to find my friends among small kids. I had to pour all of my heart
into reading books and reciting excerpts from Chinese literature,
including Confucian classics and Tang Dynasty poems. Besides, my
grandma taught me to sing the Kunqu Opera and to write calligraphy
with a brushTraditional Chinese culture took root in my heart from
that time on," Yu recalled.
Though always impressing people with her memory and eloquence,
Yu admitted that she remained reticent until she enrolled in
Beijing No 4 Middle School, where she was encouraged by teachers to
express herself and befriended her classmates in the dormitory.
"Perhaps, what I am doing now as a talkative media consultant
and lecturer on TV is guided by an unconscious urge to make up for
my quiet and unhappy childhood," joked Yu.
(China Daily November 27, 2006)
