The Importance of Living is also known as the Art of Living, is one of the master works written by Lin Yutang in English, a renowned Chinese writer and translator during the period of the Republic of China. It is ranked as two major representative works of Lin Yutang along with "My Country and My People", both are written by Lin Yutang in English. The Importance Living describes all of the aspects of life of the Chinese in comparison with the Westerners. Including the life style, way of thinking, life habits, values, etc. It is crowned as "Life Bible" and called a "John Day Book". To live gracefully and meaningfully, the Book is a good reference. The text of the Book is the complete original text of the book published for the first time in 1937.

This book is a cross-cultural critique on the problem of the liberal cosmopolitan in modern Chinese intellectuality in light of Lin Yutang’s literary and cultural practices across China and America. It points to the desirability of a middling Chinese modernity.

The texts chosen by Lin Yutang trace the development of Chinese art from the earliest literary reference in Confucius to the vital essays of Shih-t'ao and Shen Tsung-chi'en more than 20 centuries later. The selections cover every aspect of technique and subject matter, including the Six Canons of Chinese painting, while the scope of the book is widened further by the inclusion of important essays on collecting and connoisseurship, on the pricing and appraisal of paintings, and on calligraphy. In his introduction, Lin Yutang provides a comprehensive survey of his subject, and after each selection he furnishes the reader with a corresponding historical background, as well as information on the artist and school concerned, and explanation of any obscure passages in the original. This is the definitive single-volume sourcebook on its subject, and is completed by charts, a table of dynasties, a checklist of more than 200 artists, and a comprehensive index.

Lin Yutang (1895 1976) was the modern Chinese writer and intellectual best known to the Western world in the twentieth century. Hailed as a “Chinese philosopher,” Lin was the de facto spokesman for China and Chinese culture and played the role of cultural ambassador between China and the United States. This critical volume, representing the best international scholarship on Lin Yutang studies to date, is a first attempt at a comprehensive study on the cross-cultural legacy of Lin s literary practices in and across China and America. The essays collected here, most of which were first presented at the international conference on the cross-cultural legacy of Lin Yutang in China and America held at the City University of Hong Kong in December 2011, offer different perspectives on Lin s cross-cultural legacy.