Chinese Lit Professor Discusses Chinese Lit

Madison, Wisconsin, 1921

CHINESE LIKE DOYLE'S YARNS

American Detective Stories Make Big Hit Among Oriental Students

A. Conan Doyle's detective stories and Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are "all the rage" among Chinese readers of today, according to Prof. Chia Len Chen in a talk on Chinese Literature Thursday afternoon in Bascom hall.

"The Chinese language is very difficult to learn," said Mr. Chen. "This is due to the fact that each word has four tones, each with a different meaning." He gave for am example the word "fang," meaning room and proceeded to pronounce it to show the difference in tone. Strangely enough, to the inexperienced American ear, each pronunciation sounded exactly alike.

"'Our robbers will not disappear until all the wise men are dead,' was the belief of a Chinese philosopher living in the third or fourth century B. C.," said Prof. Chen, in his lecture on The Essentials of Chinese Philosophy in Bascom hall Thursday night.

"This same ancient philosopher looked upon the taming of the horse, the making of pottery, carpenter work, weaving and all the advancing marks of civilization as an evil to the race," he said. "He could not see why nature should not keep its course as when man and beasts lived fearlessly together. As people got farther away from natural laws and living, the more corrupt they became and the more in need of sermons and music to keep down their evil passions, this sage believed.

"Confucius was the great moral teacher of the Chinese people. He taught 'Do not do unto others what you would not have them do to you.' The most brilliant exponent of the school of Confucius was Mencius.

"The first Chinese philosopher of which there is record was born in 804 B. C. and was 30 years the senior of Confucius. He wrote two books of his beliefs and observations consisting of about 5,000 words."


ENGLISH AUTHORS INFLUENCE CHINESE, DECLARES DR. CHEN

Modern Writers Not Recognized But Older Works Are Studied

All of the recent novels of China show the influence of the old school of English authors, especially Scott, said Dr. Chia Lin Chen Chinese scholar and educator, who delivered the first of a series of three lectures in Bascom hall yesterday afternoon.

More modern authors have not yet been recognized by the Chinese, but Shakespeare, Irving, Dickens and Scott have been translated into Chinese and are bases of study in secondary schools. The Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle are particularly popular in China, he declared.

Dr. Chen divided the Chinese literature into two classes, the classical, written before 1900, and the modern, written since then. The older is written in a poetic prose style, similar to the blank verse of the Shakespearean works, while the modern is written in a smoother and freer style. Dr. Chen translated several of the typical poems of the various dynasties since 1800 B. C. Their subject is chiefly of the ruins of the older dynasties or of the renowned beauties of the period in which they are written.

Dr. Chen will speak on Chinese drama this afternoon at 4:30 in 165 Bascom hall.

—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, May 13, 1921, page 3.