Peking University, May 18, 2011: Renowned Yale Professor Chang Sun Kang-i donated her 43-year book collection to Peking University, according to a ceremony at PKU on May 16.
The collection, knowned as “Qianxuezhai Wenku” (Qianxuezhai Library), was donated to the PKU International Academy of Chinese Studies (IACS).
Professor Yuan Xingpei, a leading scholar in Chinese language and literature and director of IACS, presided over the ceremony.
The donating ceremony
Professor Yuan pointed out that it was considerably respectable of Professor Chang Sun Kang-i to donate her collection of academic — the books which had cost her tens of years to gather — to IACS, totally free of charge. He believed that with such great support from scholars like Professor Chang, IACS and the Chinese Studies Library would surely be more glorious to attract more international sinologists.
PKU Vice President Liu Wei delivered a speech on behalf of PKU administration. He said that Professor Chang Kangqi made prominent contribution to the international cooperation and communication of PKU Humanities, which exerted deep influence on international Chinese studies.
Prof. Liu Wei, vice president of PKU
Professor Liu also emphasized that PKU attached great importance to the internationalization of the Humanities and was devoted to developing its international competitiveness, which was included in PKU’s “Building a world-class university” strategy. The PKU IACS was an epitome to internationalize PKU’s humanities. The university had provided active support in aspects of office facilities, library collection and international cooperation; in the future, more support would be given to hall building and staffing so that Professor Chang’s collection would be made full use of and produce more positive influences to sinology academic researches.
Professor Chang Sun Kang-i said that she was happy to “move” her collection of books from the US to PKU — Beijing was her hometown, so the donation was a real return. What was more, it was a tradition of Yale University to regard books as its base, which she was glad to continue. She was very grateful to the help from IACS — as well as her father’s encouragement and education all along — and was looking forward to having more opportunities to cooperate and communicate with PKU scholars.
Professor Chang Sun Kang-i with her brother Sun Guanqi, PKU Vice President Liu Wei, Assistant President Li Qiang, Professor An Pingqiu and Liao Kebin from PKU Research Center for Chinese Classics, PKU Librarian Zhu Qiang, Professor Zhao Minli from the Research Center of Chinese Poetry, Capital Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Fan Ziye, Assistant Director of IACS Cheng Yuzhui and Rong Xinjiang, Executive Officer of IACS Wang Bo, Liu Yucai and Qi Dongfang, and some graduates from PKU departments of Chinese, history, philosophy, and archaeology attended the ceremony.
Extended Reading:
Professor Chang Sun Kang-i, the inaugural Malcolm G. Chace '56 Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University, is a scholar of classical Chinese literature with interest in women writers of traditional China, comparative studies of poetry, literary criticism, gender studies, hermeneutics, and cultural theory/aesthetics.
The new professorship was established by Malcolm "Kim" G. Chace III '56, principal and vice president of Point Gammon Corporation Financial Services, to support the teaching and research activities of a full-time faculty member in the humanities, and to further the University's preeminence in the study of arts and letters.
Chang is the author of "The Late Ming Poet Ch'en Tzu-lung: Crises of Love and Loyalism," "Six Dynasties Poetry" and "The Evolution of Chinese Tz'u Poetry: From Late T'ang to Northern Sung." She is the co-editor of "Cambridge History of Chinese Literature," "Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism" (with Yale colleague Haun Saussy) and "Writing Women in Late Imperial China." Her translations have been published in a number of Chinese publications, and she has also authored books in Chinese, including (in English) "Journey Through Hardship," "Challenges of the Literary Canon," "Voices of Literature," "Feminist Readings: Classical and Modern Perspectives" and the forthcoming "Crossing Academic Boundaries."
Born in Beijing, Chang earned her BA at Tunghai University in Taiwan and a MLS. from the State University of New Jersey-Rutgers. She then went on to obtain two master's degrees - one in English literature from South Dakota State University and one in classical Chinese literature at Princeton University, where she also earned her PhD. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1982, she was curator of the Gest Oriental Library and East Asian Collections at Princeton.
At Yale, Chang is also affiliated with the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, the Literature Major and the Department of Comparative Literature. She has served as chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and director of graduate studies.
Her numerous honors include two A. Whitney Griswold Awards and a Faculty Fellowship from the Whitney Humanities Center and a Morse Fellowship from Yale.
Written by: Duan Ranjia
Edited by: Arthars
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
