Writer and translator who wrote mostly in English for Western readers, as in My Country and My People and The Importance of Living. He made 幽默 the Chinese word for humour and invented a Chinese typewriter.
His given name was first 玉堂 'jade hall'; he later swapped 玉 'jade' for the similar-sounding 语 'language'. He summed himself up in a couplet: 两脚踏东西文化，一心评宇宙文章, 'two feet in Eastern and Western culture, one mind judging the writings of the universe'.
