The Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) at the University of Macau (UM) held the Macao Humanities Forum, where Ronald Egan, the Stanford W. Ascherman, M.D. Professor and Confucius Institute Professor of Sinology in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University, delivered a lecture titled ‘A Forgotten Literary Colloquy: Qian Zhongshu, Su Dongpo, and Cyril Drummond Le Gros Clark, Sarawak’s Chief Secretary in 1935’. The lecture was well attended by students and faculty members.
Speaking at the event, Joaquim Kuong, assistant dean of FAH, noted that the forum covered multiple humanities disciplines, including Chinese literature, history, culture, and translation, demonstrating that literature is not confined by time or geography. He expressed hope that the audience would engage in a cross-era literary colloquy with Prof Egan. Zhang Jian, associate dean of FAH, introduced Prof Egan’s academic background and achievements. He also mentioned the influence of Pai Hsien-yung on Prof Egan, which inspired him to switch from English studies to East Asian languages and cultural studies during his undergraduate years, and ultimately dedicate himself to Chinese literature and history. Prof Egan translated Qian Zhongshu’s Limited Views (Guanzhui Bian) into English and participated in editing The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature. His notable works include The Problem of Beauty: Aesthetic Thought and Pursuits in Northern Song Dynasty China, and The Burden of Female Talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China.
During the lecture, Prof Ronald Egan introduced Cyril Drummond Le Gros Clark, who served as chief secretary of Sarawak in 1935 during the British colonial era. Despite living in China for only two years, Le Gros Clark developed a keen interest in Su Dongpo’s fu, and translated and annotated 23 of them. Le Gros Clark’s translated work, The Prose-Poetry of Su Tung-p’o, was published in 1935. It featured woodcut illustrations by his wife, Averil Salmond, and a foreword by Qian Zhongshu, who was 25 years old at the time. Prof Egan then showed some of Salmond’s woodcut illustrations depicting scenes such as ‘We have befriended the deer (wo you milu)’, ‘Directly it touched the ground it ran off (duodi naizou)’, and ‘Alone and utterly helpless (du qiongqiong hu)’. He pointed out that the selected content reflected the distinctive focus of foreign readers.
Prof Egan observed that, Qian held Su Dongpo in higher regard in the foreword to Le Gros Clark’s translated work than in his later work, Selected and Annotated Song Poetry (Songshi xuanzhu). He then read ‘Fu on a Wily Rat’ with the audience and highlighted the dialogue between Su Dongpo’s conscious and unconscious selves in this fu, a style of writing that was considered avant-garde at the time. In his concluding remarks, Associate Dean Zhang said that the lecture represented a dialogue not only between eras and cultures, but also between Le Gros Clark and Su Dongpo, Qian Zhongshu and Su Dongpo, and Prof Egan and all three.
During the Q&A session, UM students and faculty engaged in an in-depth discussion with Prof Egan on translating traditional Chinese terms such as fu and qilin into English. Prof Egan explained that fu is one of the most challenging literary terms to translate into English, as it has a specific meaning in traditional Chinese culture. He added that there is no direct equivalent in English, and that the transliteration fu is now widely accepted. Prof Egan also suggested that translators can include explanatory footnotes when such traditional terms first appear to help English readers understand their cultural connotations.
This was the first lecture of the Macao Humanities Forum for the 2025/2026 academic year. Every year, the forum invites distinguished scholars in different fields of the humanities to share their latest research findings with students and faculty members in Macao. Previous lectures of the forum have covered a wide range of topics, including literature, linguistics, history, translation, and arts.
