Who is Yu Dan? If you are familiar with Yi Zhongtian, you will have heard of "Lecture Room," a TV program featuring "old men" like Yi giving history lectures. In contrast, Yu Dan, a professor at Beijing Normal University, presents audiences with her own renditions of history in her beautiful dress suits and from female perspective.
Professor Yu Dan is popular for her lecture "Thoughts on the Analects of Confucius," given from a woman's exclusive and exquisite point of view. Yu Dan also uses colloquialisms through her lectures, making them easier to be understood.
However, her extremely personal way of explaining history is controversial as well. Confucius' saying, "Girls and small people are hard to raise" is usually interpreted as Confucius looking down on women, but Yu tells audiences "small people" refers to small children, implying woman and children are both pure.
Yi Zhongtian, one of the "old men" in the lecture room who is also a dream husband among young female viewers, praises Professor Yu Dan.
A total of 600,000 copies of Yu Dan's "Thoughts on the Analects of Confucius" will be printed soon, breaking Yi Zhongtian and young writer Hanhan's records of the quantity of initial published copies.
(CRI.com November 15, 2006)
