Nils Göran David Malmqvist (6 June 1924 – 17 October 2019) was a Swedish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, literary historian, sinologist and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

. He was also a member of the Swedish Academy between 1985 and 2019.

Biography

Göran Malmqvist was born on 6 June 1924, in Jönköping, Sweden. Following introductory studies of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

under Sinologist

Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren (; 15 October 1889 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods. In the early 20th century, Karlgren conduct ...

at Stockholm University, Malmqvist studied in China in 1948–1950. He then returned to Stockholm, taking a

Licentiate of Arts The Licentiate of Arts is a degree roughly equivalent to the completion of half the coursework required for a doctoral dissertation in arts. The academic degree licentiate exists in various European countries. The University of Art and Design H ...

degree in 1951. His international research career started shortly thereafter with a lectureship in Chinese at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1953–1955. He was then appointed Swedish cultural attaché in

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and worked in China in 1956–1958.

Academic career

After his years in China he moved to Australia in 1958, where he worked for seven years at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

in Canberra. After some important essays on Chinese language history he was appointed Professor of Chinese at the university in 1961. During his professorship at the Australian National University, Malmqvist published academic articles on both old Chinese and modern Chinese. The articles concerned ''e.g.''

phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

issues and literary

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

s during the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

, the syntax of bound forms in Sïchuanese and western

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

phonology.

Writing and translation

In 1965, Malmqvist was called to Stockholm as Professor of Sinology, particularly Modern Chinese, at the newly established Section of Chinese in the Department of Oriental Languages at Stockholm University. Back in Stockholm, his career as a translator also began, with a series of interpretations of

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

lyrics in the anthology ''Det förtätade ögonblicket'' (The compact moment). Malmqvist translated more than 40 volumes of Chinese literature from different epochs, different Chinese varieties, and different literary genres. In 1971, Malmqvist published several textbooks including ''Nykinesisk grammatik'' (Grammar of Modern Chinese) and ''Nykinesisk fonetik'' (Phonetics of Modern Chinese), a number of translations, chiefly in the academic journal ''Orientaliska studier'' (Oriental studies), and the large section on ''Chinese literature 500–1779'' in the joint Nordic ''Litteraturens världshistoria'' (World history of literature). This was followed in 1973 with the section on ''The literature of China 1780–1890'' and ''Chinese literature 1890–1965''. The same year he published the translation of

Lao She Shu Qingchun (3 February 189924 August 1966), known by his pen name Lao She, was a Chinese novelist and dramatist. He was one of the most significant figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, and is best known for his novel '' Rickshaw Boy'' ...

’s short stories in ''Det sorgsna skrattet'' (The sorrowful laugh). In 1974, Malmqvist published the popular volume ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'' (Chinese isn't difficult). During the 1970s, he was also working on the translation of the over thousand page

picaresque novel The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...

'' Shui Hu zhuan''. The Swedish title is ''Berättelser från träskmarkerna'' (Tales from the swamps) and the work appeared in four volumes between 1976 and 1979. He also translated the five volumes of '' Xī Yóu Jì'' (''Journey to the West'', with the Swedish title ''Färden till västern''), a 16th-century story of how in the 7th century the pilgrim

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

brings the holy writings of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

from India to China. During the 1970s and 1980s, Malmqvist's research turned chiefly to classical Chinese

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, syntax and semantics.

Swedish Academy

Göran Malmqvist was elected to the Swedish Academy on 11 April 1985 and admitted on 20 December 1985. Malmqvist succeeded the literary historian Henry Olsson to Chair number 5. From the time after his election to the Swedish Academy, the over five-hundred page biography on his teacher

was of particular note: ''Bernhard Karlgren – ett forskarporträtt'' in 1995; (Bernhard Karlgren – portrait of a scholar). Malmqvist here follows Karlgren's path through the pioneering era of Sinology from his early dialectological fieldwork in China in 1910–1912, which aimed at reconstructing the sound pattern of ancient Chinese. Following the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Chinese author

Mo Yan Guan Moye (; born 17 February 1955), better known by the pen name Mo Yan (, ), is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. Donald Morrison of U.S. news magazine ''TIME'' referred to him as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirate ...

in 2012, Malmqvist was criticized for a possible conflict of interest, as he had close personal and economic relations to Mo Yan. Malmqvist had translated several of Mo Yan's works into Swedish and published some through his own publishing house. Mo Yan had also written a laudatory preface to one of Malmqvist's own books, and been a close friend of Malmqvist's wife for 15 years. The Nobel committee denied that this constituted a conflict of interest, and said that it would have been absurd for Malmqvist to recuse.

Bibliography

*''Det förtätade ögonblicket: T’ang-lyrik'' (1965) *''Problems and methods in Chinese linguistics'' (1964) *''Han phonology and textual criticism'' (1963) *''Gunnar Martins samling av kinesisk och japansk litteratur'' (1947)ae-info *- Göran Malmqvist books.
Retrieved 20 October 2019 *''111 nykinesiska satsmönster'' (1973) *''Nykinesisk grammatik'' (1973) *''Kinesiska är inte svårt'' (1974) *''Nykinesisk fonetik'' (1974) *''Nykinesiska satsmönster'' (1981) *''Vägar till Kina: Göran Malmqvist 60 år'' (1984) *''Henry Olsson: Inträdestal i Svenska akademien'' (1985) *''Bernhard Karlgren: Ett forskarporträtt'' (1995) *''Nio röster från Taiwan: Modern kinesisk poesi'' (1999) *''Haiku för ros och oros skull'' (2002) *''Strövtåg i svunna tider'' (2005) *''Guldfisken som älskar att sjunga Mozart'' (2013)

Notes

References

* ''Stol nr 5 – Göran Malmqvist'', Official biography by Jan Arnald, Swedish Academy: Stockholm, 2005.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malmqvist, Goran 1924 births 2019 deaths Alumni of the University of London Linguists from Sweden Members of the Swedish Academy People from Jönköping Stockholm University alumni Swedish expatriates in China Swedish expatriates in Australia 20th-century Swedish historians Swedish sinologists Swedish translators Translators from Chinese Translators to Swedish 20th-century translators Cultural attachés Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences