François Cheng (; born 30 August 1929) is a Chinese-born French academician,

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, and

calligrapher Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an exp ...

. He is the author of essays, novels, collections of poetry and books on art written in the French language, and the translator of some of the great

French poets List of poets who have written in the French language: A Céline Arnauld (1885-1952) * Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813–1890) * Adam de la Halle (v.1250 – v.1285) * Dominique Aguessy (1937– ) * Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1967) * Ann ...

into Chinese.

Biography

Born in

Nanchang Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi, China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. Because of its strate ...

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

in 1929, Cheng travelled to France in 1948 at the age of nineteen. In his 2002 speech to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, Cheng said,

"I became a Frenchman in law, mind and heart more than thirty years ago ..especially from that moment when I resolutely went over to the French language, making it the weapon, or the soul, of my creative work. This language, how can I say everything that I owe to it? It is so intimately bound up with the way I live and my inner life that it has proved to be the emblem of my destiny."

Cheng's first works were academic studies about

Chinese poetry Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, and a part of the Chinese literature. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernac ...

and

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he worked with the psychoanalyst

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

on studying and translating texts from the classical Chinese canon. These exchanges informed Lacan's late teaching on psychoanalytic interpretation. Later he began to write poems in French, before finally turning to the writing of novels. Cheng won the 1998 Prix Femina for his novel ''Le Dit de Tianyi'' ("''The Tale of Tianyi''") (Albin Michel, Paris, 1998). In 2002 he was elected to the

, the first person of Asian origin to be so honoured. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Fondation Chirac's honour committee.

Marriage and family

Cheng married a painter who was also a Chinese national. They became French citizens and had a family. Their daughter Anne Cheng, born in Paris in 1955, also became an academic and sinologist.La pensée chinoise par-delà les fantasmes
" '' Sciences humaines'' ( FR). 4 March 2013. Retrieved on 11 December 2013.

Bibliography

* ''Analyse formelle de l'œuvre poétique d'un auteur des Tang : Zhang Ruoxu'' (1970) * ''Le Pousse-pousse'', by Lao She, (translation, 1973) * ''L'Écriture poétique chinoise'' (1977) * ''Vide et plein: le langage pictural chinois'' (1979) * ''L'espace du rêve: mille ans de peinture chinoise'' (1980) * ''Sept poètes français'' (1983) * '' Henri Michaux, sa vie, son œuvre'' (1984) * '' Chu Ta : le génie du trait'' (1986) * ''Some Reflections on Chinese Poetic Language and its Relation to Chinese Cosmology dans The Vitality of the Lyric Voice'' (1986) * ''The Reciprocity of Subject and Object in Chinese Poetic Language dans Poetics East and West'' (1988) * ''De l'arbre et du rocher'' (1989) * ''Entre source et nuage, Voix de poètes dans la Chine d'hier et d'aujourd'hui'' (1990) * ''Saisons à vie'' (1993) * ''Trente-six poèmes d'amour'' (1997) * ''Quand les pierres font signe'' (1997) (with Fabienne Verdier) * '' Le Dit de Tianyi'' (1998,

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

) * '' Shitao : la saveur du monde'' (1998, Prix André Malraux) * ''Cantos toscans'' (1999) * ''D'où jaillit le chant'' (2000) * ''Double chant'' (2000, Prix Roger Caillois) * ''Et le souffle devient signe'' (2001) * ''Qui dira notre nuit'' (2001) * ''L'éternité n'est pas de trop'', Albin Michel, (2002) * ''Le Dialogue, Une passion pour la langue française'', Desclée de Brouwer, (2002) * ''Le Long d'un amour'', Arfuyen, (2003) * ''Le Livre du vide médian'', Albin Michel, (2004) * ''Que nos instants soient d'accueil'', with Francis Herth (2005) * ''À l'orient de tout'', Gallimard, (2005) * ''Cinq méditations sur la beauté'', Albin Michel, (2006) * ''L'un vers l'autre. En voyage avec Victor Segalen'', Albin Michel, (2008) *''Quand reviennent les âmes errantes'', Albin Michel, (2012) * ''Cinq méditations sur la mort – autrement dit sur la vie – ''Broché (2013) * ''La vraie gloire est ici'', Gallimard, (2015) * ''Enfin le royaume - quatrains'', Gallimard, (2018) * ''Une longue route pour m'unir au chant français'', Albin Michel, (2022)

References

External links

*
Biography on the Académie française website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Francois 1929 births Living people People from Nanchang Members of the Académie Française Chinese emigrants to France 20th-century Chinese poets Nanjing University alumni École pratique des hautes études alumni Prix Femina winners 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French poets 21st-century French poets 21st-century French male writers French translators Officers of the Legion of Honour Audiobook narrators Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres French male non-fiction writers Naturalized citizens of France University of Nanking alumni French-language writers from China

Biography

Marriage and family

Bibliography

See also

References

External links