Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

WITH Chinese literary giant Jao Tsung-i in attendance, a cultural research institute named after the centenarian was inaugurated at Shenzhen University on Wednesday.

Prof. Jao is a prestigious modern literary author, historian, archaeologist, educator and artist and he enjoys fame in many fields of the social sciences both at home and abroad. The centenarian professor managed to attend the inauguration of the institute in person.

The Jao Tsung-i Cultural Research Center will facilitate academic studies, cultivate talents, promote cultures and provide a consultancy. Domestic and international literary resources are expected to be integrated with the institute.

The institute will be Jao’s first research center in Shenzhen, while the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole has been at the University of Hong Kong since 2005. According to the cooperative deal, the two institutes will exchange scholars with each other for academic seminars and research and jointly hold global forums and exhibitions on Professor Jao’s literary works, calligraphy and paintings.

At the inauguration ceremony Wednesday, the head of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, Li Zhuofen, read Prof. Jao’s congratulatory letter on his behalf. In the letter, the respectable literator stated that he was humbled and honored to see the institute set up at the university.

Prof. Jao was first invited to be a lecturer and consultant on ancient Chinese civilization in Shenzhen University as early as 1984. Prof. Jao was appointed emeritus professor of the university in 1995.

The professor was born in the Chaozhou area of Guangdong Province in 1917. Among the Chinese literati, there is a saying that goes, “Jao in the South, Ji in the North,” which means that Jao represents the literature of South China while another giant of Chinese literature, Ji Xianlin, represents North China.