China Daily Global Edition (USA)
CLOSE-UPS OF CHINA
A program for young Sinologists is helping academics from all over the world gain a deeper understanding of the country. Xu Lin reports.
At a workshop in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, Polina Tsoncheva is carefully pinching clay on a spinning potter’s wheel, molding it into a plate.
“It’s such an indelible memory! The city is world-famous for its pottery and ceramics, and I get to see the process of how Chinese craftsmen make them,” says the assistant professor who teaches Chinese and translation at St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, in Bulgaria.
Tsoncheva was on a four-day field trip to Jiangxi’s Jingdezhen, Wuyuan and Sanqing Mountain as part of a cultural experience. They visited old villages, ancient porcelain kiln sites and watched traditional operas.
It was part of the recent threeweek 2017 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists in Beijing, in which 27 Sinologists from 26 countries participated. With an average age of 36, their research fields include the Chinese language, history and politics.
The Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences co-founded the annual project in Beijing in 2014. This year, it was held in four cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an and Zhengzhou — with a total of 120 participants.
“Young Sinologists can not only enhance their academic level, but also explore Chinese culture and society,” says Zhu Qi, deputy director of the international liaison department of the Ministry of Culture.
“It was the most wonderful three weeks, at least in my last 10 years,” says Tsoncheva. “After listening to the lectures given by Chinese scholars in Beijing, interesting ideas for my future research have come to my mind.”
She wants to delve into the history of Tongwen Guan, or the School of Combined Learning. Founded in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the government school taught foreign languages and scientific subjects. In 1902, it was merged with the Imperial University of Peking, which is now Peking University.
“The school was established due to the demands of translators and interpreters. Studying foreign languages allows one to meet different people and learn about the culture, history and traditions of other countries,” she says.
She also wants to further her study tracing the earliest time when Chinese literature entered Bulgaria and how it influenced Bulgarian literature. She discovered that in the 19th century, poems by Tang Dynasty (618-907) poets, such as Li Bai and Du Fu, were translated into Bulgarian from Russian or German versions.
“They didn’t know Chinese, but their translations capture the Chinese spirit,” she says.
Expanding worldviews
Many years ago, Bulgarians knew little about China and they had limited access to information about the country. Tsoncheva’s parents, who were born in the middle of 20th century, never visited China but they have been interested in Chinese culture and read books about China.
She recalls that when she first heard a Bulgarian speaking Chinese in university, it sounded different from any other language she had heard before.
“It was like a song. I liked it at once and from that time on I was determined to speak it at least as good as that,” she says.
After studying Chinese in Bulgaria for four years, she came to the Beijing Language and Culture University in 2001 for a one-year program to further her Chinese.
“China is changing rapidly. Thanks to globalization, we’re learning from each other’s cultures in a dynamic process that also changes us,” she says.
“I’m trying to transfer my endless curiosity and love for China and the Chinese language to all my students, making them eager to learn more and expand their worldview.”
Ana Jovanovic couldn’t agree more.
“Every time I come to China, I see a lot of changes because China has made developments in every field,” says Jovanovic, docent at the faculty of philology, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
“Many foreigners are interested in traditional Chinese art and music. In Serbia, there are more performances today by Chinese performers and music troupes (than years before). It’s great to see these shows outside of China.”
Jiangxi boasts various traditional operas, and during her stay in the province, she enjoyed an opera about the legend of the White Snake — a love story between a man and the spirit of a snake.
“It’s amazing for us to see the local operas and know about the local culture via the field trip to villages,” says Jovanovic, who has translated two books by Nobel Prize laureate Mo Yan into Serbian.
According to her, from the 1950s to 1970s, Chinese novels, including works of Lu Xun (1881-1936), were translated from intermediate languages such as English and French. But starting from the 1980s, some Chinese novels were translated directly from Chinese.
Scholarly interactions
Svetlana Kharchenkova, a lecturer from the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, in the Netherlands, believes the Visiting Program for Young Sinologists is an excellent program for young scholars and PhD students.
“It’s an intensive program with varied activities. It’s important to interact with Chinese scholars who are in similar research areas. For example, we can read and discuss each other’s work to develop further research,” she says.
She is now writing a book about the development of the contemporary Chinese art market.
“The market didn’t exist about 30 years ago, but now it’s flourishing. I’m interested in these questions — how the market and the institutions were established? How did the auction houses and galleries emerge?” she says.
The visit to Jingdezhen also gave her inspiration, as she visited the art zone and porcelain studios there. She also enjoyed climbing the Sanqing Mountain, because the picturesque views reminded her of the traditional Chinese painting about landscapes.
“Imagine if we lived here, we would have the inspiration to make beautiful artworks, too. No wonder China has such wonderful traditional culture,” she says.
She started to learn the Chinese language in 2000. Four years later, she made her first visit to China, studying Chinese at Peking University for a year.
“The internet was not so developed at that time. It was so much fun to meet Chinese people and see Chinese characters everywhere,” she recalls.
She worked in Beijing from 2006 to 2008, witnessing the fast development of the capital before the Olympic Games, such as the further construction of the subway and the Beijing National Stadium.
Journeys of discovery
“The program allows China to market itself. It’s like a melting pot of different cultures. Young Sinologists from all over the world come to see what’s going on here, rather than read textbooks about it,” says Tochukwu Innocent Okeke, a lecturer from the department of history and diplomatic studies at the University of Abuja, Nigeria.
Like others, he appreciates the opportunity to interact with Chinese scholars, so they can get firsthand information about China.
“It helps me open my heart more so I can connect with China in a more profound way,” he says.
“I’m happy about being able to read books in the library of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences because outside China it’s not easy to find such a rich collection. I also met many professors and our talks have given me more insights about my research focus.”
When he was pursuing his PhD several years ago in Wuhan, Hubei province, he found the history of China-Africa relations could be traced back at least to the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when Emperor Yongle sent his admiral Zheng He on seven expeditions to the Indian and Pacific oceans.
“Now the visiting program has stirred my interest in the topic again. I want to know about the ancient relationship between China and Africa, especially during the Ming Dynasty. I want to know about Zheng’s statecraft and diplomacy,” he says.
Like him, other young Sinologists also benefited greatly from talking to Chinese scholars.
“Chinese professors give me precious suggestions about my research on agriculture. I want to figure out what lessons African countries can learn from China. One of the challenges between China and Africa is that there is little research in the area,” says Gedion Jalata from Ethiopia, the program manager for Africa-China Dialogue Platform at Oxfam International.
“Since reform and opening-up was launched in 1978, China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty. We’re planning to have scholars and policymakers discuss this at our dialogue platform, so African countries can learn from China’s experience to reduce poverty,” he says.
I’m trying to transfer my endless curiosity and love for China and the Chinese language to all my students.”
Polina Tsoncheva, a Sinologist from Bulgaria