Anthony C. Yu | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 余國藩 | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simplified Chinese | 余国藩 | ||||||||||
|
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Yú Guófān |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | Yùh Gwok-fàahn |
Anthony C. Yu (Chinese: 余国藩; pinyin: Yú Guófān; October 6, 1938 – May 12, 2015) was a scholar of literature and religion, eastern and western. At the time of his death he was Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature in the Divinity School; also in the Departments of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and English Language and Literature, and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
Yu was born in Hong Kong October 6, 1938. His middle initial "C" was only a legal formality. His father, Pak Chuen Yu, a general in the Chinese Nationalist Army, and his mother Norma Sau Chan, then went to the mainland to escape the Japanese invasion. There, starting at the age of four, Yu learned classical Chinese from his grandfather, who would tell him stories from Journey to the West and draw Chinese characters in the sand for him to learn. After the war he went with his parents to Taiwan. He went to the United States, where he graduated from Houghton College, then took a bachelor’s in theology at Fuller Theological Seminary (S.T.B) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D). Among his honors and awards are elected membership in the American Council of Learned Societies, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Mellon Foundation grant.
Best known for his four-volume translation of Journey to the West (University of Chicago Press), he also published widely in the fields of religion and comparative literature.