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By Leong Weng Kam, Senior Writer
There was once a student who, clutching a handful of uncooked rice, asked his teacher: 'What is the true value of this amount of rice?'
The teacher replied: 'It depends on whose hand it is in.'
He elaborated: 'Give it to a housewife who adds water and then boils it; the rice, when cooked, may be worth $1.
'A hawker can add some meat and other ingredients after cooking it, wrap it up with leaves and steam it into rice dumplings, selling them for $2 or more each in the market.
'A businessman may be even more innovative, investing in some equipment to ferment the rice into wine, making at least $20 from each bottle he produces.'
For nearly two hours last Wednesday evening, celebrity Chinese academic Yu Dan used down-to-earth stories like this in a talk to businessmen, the Chinese media and community leaders and students.
Her aim? To show how simple Chinese thought, philosophy and religious beliefs over thousands of years old can be told and understood, even by the layman.
The well-groomed Dr Yu used the story about the handful of rice to illustrate the Confucian teaching of min, meaning quick or being flexible, to explain why those who can act fast and are innovative will always be rewarded.
The professor in media studies from Beijing Normal University (BNU), who is dubbed guo xue cai nu or China's top woman scholar, related story after story to illustrate Chinese wisdom - from the teachings of Confucius (551-479 BC) and those of Taoist sage Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC) to how Buddhism, a religion China imported from India, had helped the Chinese rediscover their soul.
The 500 people who heard her speak at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) auditorium seemed to love every minute of it.
The talk in Mandarin, presented by SCCCI and the Confucius Institute at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), kept them glued to their seats and rapt throughout, except for a few moments when they burst into laughter and applause, recognising the stories in their own lives.
Like many in the audience, lawyer Hee Theng Fong, who is also chairman of SCCCI's education and culture committees, was impressed by Dr Yu's oratorical skills.
'Her ability to communicate with the audience and explain complex philosophical ideas in modern-day language was impeccable, benefiting especially the common folks who did not understand them before,' he said.
It is precisely this skill that has made the 44-year-old into a household name in China today.
It all started three years ago when she gave a series of seven talks on China's prime-time television to share her insights and interpretations of Confucius' Analects, a compilation of the great Chinese thinker's life and teachings.
Her talks on The Analects, each 45 minutes long, were part of the popular CCTV daily programme, Lecture Room, in which well known academics in China and elsewhere are invited to share their thoughts on all things Chinese - from language, arts and culture to history, philosophy and religion.
Dr Yu's series was an instant hit. An edited transcript of the talks, published by Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing a month after her TV appearance, has since sold more than five million copies, not to mention the estimated six million pirated copies. The book is still at the top of the Chinese bestseller list.
She followed it up by giving another series of talks on Confucius, and two others on Zhuang Zi and Kun Opera, respectively, between 2007 and last year, in the CCTV programme. They were well received.
But it was her talks on Confucius' teachings which have remained popular, not only with her audience in China but also in many other countries.
Her book, Yu Dan Lun Yu Xin De (translated as Yu Dan's Understanding Of The Analects From The Heart), has been translated into English, Japanese and Korean, with the Italian, German, French and Dutch versions all waiting to be published soon.
The past 21/2 years also saw her busy with many overseas speaking engagements, taking her to Sao Paolo in Brazil, Paris in France, Harvard and Stanford universities in the United States and more recently to London, Manchester and Cambridge in Britain, where the English edition of her book was launched in April (see other story).
Her talk last Wednesday was her third here since March 2007, when she came to speak at the Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Media Centre, at an event jointly organised by SPH and the Confucius Institute at NTU.
She was here again in July the same year for the official opening of NTU's Confucius Institute at one-north, where she also gave a public lecture.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in her suite at the Raffles Hotel last week, Dr Yu, whose father was a Chinese scholar, editor and deputy general manager of Zhonghua Book Company, said she grew up listening to stories and reading about Chinese classics and philosophy at home. She was born and bred in Beijing, where she is now based.
But her career extolling the views of Confucius came about by accident.
Though both her bachelor's and master's degrees are in Chinese language and literature, she went into media studies later and, in 2001, obtained a doctorate in film and television studies from BNU, where she is now assistant to the dean in the faculty of arts and media.
For many years, she was a consultant at CCTV and when the TV station wanted someone to talk about Confucius in its Lecture Room programme, the producers asked her for her views.
'I told them it had to be relevant to modern-day living and Confucius' teachings and ideas must be explained in easy-to-understand language,' she said in Mandarin.
The producers agreed with her suggestions and thought she might be just the person to anchor the programme.
Her rise to celebrity status was not without criticism and controversy. Some Confucius scholars, both in China and abroad, had criticised her for distorting the sage's teachings. But she maintained that she was just sharing her own interpretation of The Analects.
'My talks are simply selections from Confucius' teachings which I found we can learn from and apply to our modern daily lives. I always encourage my listeners to read the original texts and arrive at their own understanding and interpretations as well,' she said.
The mother of a four-year-old daughter - her husband is a media professional - was also recently alleged by some critics in Jakarta to have overcharged for her talk there last year. The fee was rumoured to be 50,000 yuan (S$10,700).
There was also talk of prima donna behaviour when she was in Britain in April. She reportedly demanded that her hotel room be changed - three times in three days. And she also reportedly sacked her interpreter for incompetence.
When asked for her response to the negative news both in the press and on the Internet at the talk last Wednesday evening, her simple reply was: 'Whatever we do, there is bound to be carping from some quarters.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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