Past Events

Book launch of Festschrift for the Eightieth Birthday of Professor Nienhauser

On 13 October 2023 at 3pm, the book launch for the Festschrift for the Eightieth Birthday of Professor Nienhauser was held at the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology of Hong Kong Baptist University. Professor William Nienhauser, Halls-Bascom Chair Professor of Classical Chinese Literature, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, honoured the Academy by accepting our invitation and attending in person and celebrated his eightieth birthday together with our distinguished guests, all gathered under one roof.

Professor Nienhauser is recognised, both in China and overseas, as a renowned master sinologist. His expertise covers many fields and includes translation and research on The Grand Scribe's Records and research into poetic songs and legends of the Tang dynasty as well as ancient novels. He has been awarded the Humboldt Foundation Prize for lifetime achievement. This publication, Festschrift for the Eightieth Birthday of Professor Nienhauser, has as its editors-in-chief Professors Chen Zhi and Xu Xingwu, and was compiled by the Academy and the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing University. In it are found twenty-one essays by former students, colleagues, and friends of Professor Nienhauser that have been inspired by the broadness of his scholarly influence. It serves not only as a retrospective summary of the achievements of his scholarly career but also demonstrates his important position and extraordinary influence in the field of classical literary studies, and it could be regarded as a celebration of his birthday that has its own special significance.

The book launch received the enthusiastic support of the scholars and guests present who offered their congratulations in person. These included: Professor Edward Shaughnessy, Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor of Early Chinese Studies of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago; Professor Xu Xingwu of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences of Nanjing University; Wang Wenjun, Head of Nanjing University Press and Director of the Institute for Chinese Social Sciences Research and Assessment of Nanjing University; Professor Chen Donghua, Director of the Department of Social Sciences of Nanjing University; Professor Qi Lin, Associate Editor-in-Chief of Nanjing University Press; Honorary Professor Richard Ho Man-wui of the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Professor Lü Zongli, Director of the Ling College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Professor Li Donghui, Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs) of Lingnan University; Professor Stuart Christie, Executive Associate Dean of Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University and Associate Professor Dr Andrej Fech, Acting Vice-Director of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology.

Director of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Professor Chen Zhi, expressed his gratitude to the distinguished guests at the event for attending in person. He reminisced on the scene, some thirty years ago whilst studying in America when he had first encountered Professor Nienhauser. Then a student, Chen Zhi had just arrived at the airport when Professor Nienhauser, clad in heavy winter clothes and having risked the travails of heavy snow, came bustling towards him and lifted Chen's suitcase onto his shoulders in one swift movement. Since then, time has marched on, and the years have steadily passed, but in recent years, Professor Nienhauser has still worked tirelessly at the scholarly weal, and at the book launch still exuded the same irrepressible energy, just as he had done all those years ago, and this left Professor Chen simply speechless with amazement.

Professor Xu Xingwu then went to the podium and gave his address. He looked back on the rich and long scholarly association between Professor Nienhauser and Nanjing University. As early as the 1980s, Professor Nienhauser had come to the Chinese Department of Nanjing University and established profound friendships with many of the older generation of scholars of the time, for example, Cheng Qianfan, Zhou Xunchu, Bian Xiaoxuan, and Wu Xinlei. Subsequently, from 2016 to 2019, Professor Nienhauser supervised the unit of the Literature School of Nanjing University undertaking the English translation of The Grand Scribe's Records and attracted scholars worldwide to take part in the effort. Professor Xu made a special point of drawing attention to the important contribution that Professor Nienhauser had made to promoting exchange and cooperation between the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the Chinese Department of Nanjing University.

Wang Wenjun, Head of the Nanjing University Press, represented the entire personnel of the Press in wishing Professor Nienhauser a very happy eightieth birthday. He indicated that Professor Nienhauser was an important collaborator with the Press, the earliest American sinologist to visit China in person, and that he had made an outstanding contribution to research on English translation of The Grand Scribe's Records. Owing to the pandemic and after three years, Wang Wenjun took the opportunity to present the fourteenth Special Book Award of China, the highest accolade awarded in the field of book publishing, to Professor Nienhauser.

Some of those students and friends of Professor Nienhauser who were regretfully unable to attend in person passed on their sincerest good wishes for a very happy birthday to him via internet videos one by one; these included: Professor Tong Ling, Associate Director of the School of Humanities of Nanjing University; Professor Jin Xinrong, School of Information Management of Nanjing University; Professor Cao Weiguo, Washington State University; and Dr Wu Chen, Senior Lecturer of Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Columbia University etc.

At the book presentation ceremony that took place, the two editors-in-chief, Professors Chen Zhi and Xu Xingwu, presented Festschrift for the Eightieth Birthday of Professor Nienhauser to Professor Nienhauser as well as a 'longevity couple' that they had jointly written that read: 'As the wine cup was called the companion of the Immortal Poet, so too were you to the essays of the Grand Historian' to convey their respectful wishes in elegant recitation, which expressed their admiration of Professor Nienhauser's outstanding scholarship and lofty moral virtuousness.

This opulent but sensitively dignified book launch that doubled as an opportunity for celebrating an eightieth birthday not only affirmed the excellence of Professor Nienhauser's outstanding scholarly achievements, but also symbolized friendship between the scholarly worlds of East and West, and the distillation thereto of scholarship and emotion. In essence, the allure of Professor Nienhauser's scholarship has succeeded in inspiring those following to take up the torch that is passed and to pursue excellence.