[1] Yu is apparently a fan of pop music idols such as Jay Chou and Nan Quan Mama, a Chinese classic enthusiast and a Kunqu Opera performer.
[5] In the Spring Festival period of 2007, another series of her lectures "Yu Dan's Insights into Zhuangzi" (于丹《庄子》心得) was broadcast to much acclaim.
Crowds of people lined up outside the Zhongguancun Xinhua bookstore, waiting as many as eight hours in the rain, just to get Yu Dan's autograph.
[4] In an interview with New York Times, Yu attributed the popularity of her work to the stresses of life in the fast-changing nation and to historical factors (paraphrased): "Traditional thought has been criticized for so many years that there is genuine interest in rediscovering it.
"[7] Christian Caryl, writing in Hong Kong's Muse Magazine, has criticised Yu's book Confucius from the heart: Ancient Wisdom for Today's World: 'New-Agers in the West have made an industry out of freeze-drying non-Western religions until they're tasteless enough for the indiscriminate modern palate.