Acentury of revolution, followed by reform and finally economic miracles, has left many mainland Chinese unsure about their cultural identity. Yu Dan has the remedy. 'Chinese culture is immortal,' says the 42-year-old professor from Beijing, in Hong Kong recently to give a talk on Chinese classics. 'But in recent history, we have had to adapt to so many imports from the west; now it is important to take a good look and see that our core identity is still there.' This is a perfect message in contemporary China. It is patriotic, gives a sense of the greatness of the country's tradition and avoids politics. Yet it coincides with the political needs of the party, which has made patriotism one of its chief claims for legitimacy. It also serves the real desire of the many Chinese tired of seeing their country's heritage from the perspective of crisis, which was dominant for the better part of the last century. Now, they feel, is the time to see China in a more positive light. And who could be more Chinese than Confucius? Which is why Yu began a Confucius campaign. It started two years ago and is still going strong. Her lecture series on CCTV about the Analects, a Confucian classic that consists of a collection of bon mots from the master, was a big hit in 2006. A few months later the book version, called Yu Dan Lunyu Xinde, or What Yu Dan learned from the Analects, outsold Harry Potter on the mainland and set a record for its book market. Since then, Yu has toured the country with her lecture series. In Hong Kong, 700 people filled an auditorium at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, few older than their mid-40s. Many took their children and a number of seats were reserved for students. It's easy to see why Yu appeals, especially to urban professionals. She looks every bit the contemporary Chinese idea of success. Fashionable, highly educated and sharp, her message hits home in these times of rapid modernisation. 'Our ambitions are often far-fetched and over the top,' she says during her lectures. 'We get so busy that we neglect the very people who are the most important to us: our parents, our friends and our children.' Audiences also like the way she brings the traditional and modern together. The reassurance that the sages and philosophers of old are as relevant as ever soothes a cultural identity that has suffered serious blows in recent history. The last century, as Yu points out, directed many painful experiences at the mainland and gave rise to a certain self-hatred among its intelligentsia. They felt that to save the country they first needed to destroy their heritage. This spirit showed in the May Fourth Movement and much more fiercely in the Cultural Revolution. It was still audible in the 80s, when the TV series River Elegy again recommended burying China's tradition for the sake of modernisation. 'China has gone through so many hardships,' Yu says. 'From the revolution in 1911 the country has hardly had a stable cultural environment.' But along with the mainland's unprecedented economic success and its increasing political weight, the people's pride in Chinese culture is growing again. It is this mood of rising assertiveness that makes Yu's take on tradition so attractive. Last year, she published a book about Zhuangzi, a Taoist philosopher from the fourth century BC. About 15,000 copies were sold on the day it was published: a record for the mainland. But it is still Yu's book on Confucius that defines her public image. His thoughts, in her view, are as useful today as they were 2,500 years ago. 'We don't read the classics simply to quote them here and there,' says Yu, who is planning to write a book on Kun opera. 'What matters is to connect their teachings with our own lives.' She does that in her lectures by applying her reading of the Analects to a wealth of anecdotes drawn from modern life; these cover everything from the success story of McDonald's to property speculation to sad stories about ungrateful children neglecting their parents in the precedence of financial achievement over love. It might seem odd that lectures about Confucius should constitute a hit - but not to Yu's best-known predecessor, Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University. 'History gives us a sense of belonging that other peoples find in religion,' says Yi. 'We have never defined ourselves via faith, but via our past, or the image we have of our past.' Accordingly, Yu's role is less that of a scholarly lecturer and more that of a moderate TV evangelist. This is the reason her tone is often edifying rather than analytical and her appearance more reminiscent of a television personality's as opposed to a classical scholar's. 'I know how to present a topic in such a way that it has mass appeal,' says Yu, who teaches in the department of television and media studies at Beijing Normal University and who has worked as a consultant for CCTV, helping the state broadcaster design successful programmes. That makes her an unusual lecturer on Confucius - but not a universally popular one. Her reading of the Analects was labelled 'chicken soup for the soul' by the mainland's San Lian Life Week magazine and the tag stuck. A group of young scholars went so far as to demand a public apology for her 'misleading interpretation' of the master. They charged her with turning the Analects into a shallow self-help book. Confucius' thoughts, to a great extent, circle around the question of how to behave in hierarchies, for example government or family. One key issue in Confucianism is xiao, or filial piety, which is practised in the family and later extended to society at large, educating people to respect authorities. Yu also talks a great deal about xiao, but insists: 'Filial piety has absolutely nothing to do with politics. It is simply about how sons and daughters treat their parents.' Ultimately though, Yu is not all that interested in what Confucius may have had on his mind. Rather, she is on a patriotic mission. 'It is about advancing Chinese culture,' she says. 'I want to influence as many Chinese as possible. If we have a little confidence, we will surely succeed.'