Abstract: This paper takes Yan Fu as an example to investigate the complicated process of cultural transformation in modern China. Yan, who had studied abroad, belonged to the first generation of new intellectuals, but he was also strongly influenced by traditional values and lifestyles, and he displayed certain “anti-enlightenment” features. This paper argues that Yan, influenced by elements of both tradition and modernity, was to a certain extent contradictory and “janus-faced.” Yet he was also consistent in combining his modernizing project with his ultimate concerns that derived from Buddhism and Daoism. This case study indicates that Chinese modernizing intellectuals searched for Western ideas while at the same time they did not completely reject Chinese tradition. Their ideal was to combine the strengths of China and the West in order to establish a China which transcended Western modernity.

Key words: Yan Fu, enlightenment, anti-enlightenment, May Fourth Movement