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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is greatly honoured to welcome renowned French sinologist, Prof. Léon Vandermeersch, as the Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professor this year. To celebrate Prof. Jao Tsung-I’s 100^th birthday, Professor Vandermeersch will present a public lecture on ‘Memories of my relations with my Laoshi Jao Tsung-I’, followed by a birthday banquet hosted by the University. The public lecture will be held at 4:30pm next Tuesday (17 March) at Cho Yiu Hall, University Administration Building, CUHK. The lecture will be conducted in Putonghua. Members of the public are welcome. For enquiries, please call 3943-1710. 

Professor Vandermeersch is a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut de France and Former Director of École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). He worked on ancient Chinese paleography and linguistics with Prof. Jao Tsung-I back in 1961 when he was a research fellow in Hong Kong. 

He was born in 1928 in Wervicq-Sud, France. He holds diplomas in Chinese and Vietnamese from I’École Nationale des Langues Orientales (National School of Oriental Languages), and later obtained a Ph.D. in Law and Ph.D. in Literature from Paris University. Professor Vandermeersch started his career as a teacher and researcher in Vietnam, teaching in a high school in Saigon and the Faculty of Law. He was then offered the position of museum conservator at the Museum ‘Louis Finot’ in Hanoi, which was connected to the EFEO. 

Professor Vandermeersch went back to Paris in 1958 where he entered the field of Chinese studies. He then went to Japan and Hong Kong where he furthered his research in sinology. Professor Vandermeersch worked in different positions in the field of Chinese studies including Director at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Aix-en-Provence, Director of the Research Unit of Eastern Asia at the University of Paris VII, and Director of Research Work at l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, Section V. He was the French Director of the French-Japanese House in Tokyo and the Director of EFEO, and has been a correspondent of the French Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres since 1992. Professor Vandermeersch has published numerous books and articles in the field of sinology including Le nouveau monde sinisé and Études sinologiques. He was awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien and the Prix d’Aumale by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres (Institut de France). 

About the Jao Tsung-I Visiting Professorship Scheme 

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 advocate of sinology through his immense contribution in boosting the academic and cultural exchanges between China and the West.  CUHK shares the same mission to inherit and promote Chinese culture.  In 2013, 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 is 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.