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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) held the first Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professor Public Lecture today (3 March 2014) delivered by Prof. Nils Göran David Malmqvist entitled On Popular Poetry of the Tang Period.  Professor Malmqvist is a member of the Swedish Academy and a member of the selection committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Prof. Jao Tsung-I, Wei Lun Honorary Professor of Fine Arts, Emeritus Professor of Chinese Language and Literature and Honorary Professor, Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK, inaugurated the public lecture. 

Since its inception in 1963, CUHK has devoted itself to the modernization and promulgation of Chinese culture through studies in the humanities and social sciences.  Prof. Jao Tsung-I is an advocator for Sinology with his immense contribution in boosting the academic and cultural exchanges between China and the West.  CUHK shares the same mission on inheriting and promoting Chinese culture.  Last year when the University celebrated its golden jubilee, CUHK set up the Visiting Professorship Scheme under the Institute of Chinese Studies and the University is truly honoured to have this Scheme named after Prof. Jao Tsung-I.  Through this Scheme, a world-class scholar on Chinese cultural research will be invited for academic research and scholarly exchange at the Institute of CUHK every year.  It is hoped that the Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professor will be able to inspire the young generation and further promote Chinese culture. 

The first Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professor, Prof. Nils Göran David Malmqvist is a leading Swedish sinologist.  After receiving a degree from the Uppsala University, Professor Malmqvist followed the studies of ancient Chinese literature and Chinese phonology under renowned Prof. Bernhard Karlgren at Stockholm University in 1946 and then obtained his Fil. Lic. in Chinese from this university.  In the following 60 more years, Professor Malmqvist has actively involved himself in Chinese literary studies and translation and has taught Chinese in top universities in Europe and Australia.  Professor Malmqvist is a prolific writer with extensive interest in Chinese culture.  Over the years, he has published widely in English and Swedish on Chinese history and literature.  He has translated over 30 volumes and some 200 literary pieces from Chinese.  He has made great contributions in promoting academic and cultural exchanges between Sweden and China(including Hong Kong) as well as between the Western and the Chinese cultures.  His distinguished achievements have earned him numerous awards, such as the Knighthood of the Northern Star, the Royal Prize by Swedish Academy, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Translation Prize.  He also served as member of the selection committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

In 1998, Professor Malmqvist was conferred the degree of Doctor of Literature of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, honoris causa.  Professor Malmqvist maintains a very close relationship with CUHK.  He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Translation Studies, published by the Department of Translation, and Renditions, a Chinese-English translation magazine published by the Research Centre for Translation.  In October 1990, he spent seven months as Renditions Fellow of the Centre at CUHK.  In these capacities he has rendered invaluable professional advice and contributions to the Department of Translation and the Research Centre for Translation. 

In the lecture, Professor Malmqivist discussed a Tang manuscript discovered in 1969, the《十二月三臺詞》.  The rhythm and rhyme scheme of this ci (song lyric) is uncommon, and it might probably be the first six-syllable lüshi (regulated verse) in the history of Chinese literature.  The talk covered the differences in rhythm and rhyme schemes between the ‘十二月歌’ by non-mainstream poets and the so-called ‘三臺詩’, as well as the development of the six-syllable jueju (quatrain) in the Tang period. According to Prof. Jao Tsung-I in his introduction to《敦煌曲》(Airs de Touen-Houang), the distinction between shi and ci was not very obvious during the Tang. This view was further expounded and supported in the talk.