Bulletin Number Two 1983

An Interview with Professor Zhu Guang-qian The University has spared no effort in the promotion of cultural exchange and numerous distinguished scholars from different parts of the world have been invited to lecture here. Through their lectures and seminars, we are able not only to meet these great masters in person ， but also to benefit from their wisdom and expertise ， thus broadening our academic horizon. Among this year's prominent academic visitors was the famous aesthetician and theorist on art and literature ， Professor Zhu Guang-qian ， who came to Hong Kong in mid-March to conduct the New Asia College 1983 Ch'ien Mu Lecture Series and spoke on ‘Giovanni Battista Vico ， s Scienza Nuova and Its Influence on Chineseand Western Aesthetics' , Despite his brief stay and tight schedule, Professor Zhu kindly granted an interview with the Editor of the Bulletin on 29th March, just two days before he left The eighty-six-year-old Professor, who has been teaching in the Western Languages and Literature Department of Beijing University for more than fifty years, is not only highly reputed in China for his contributions to the development of aesthetics in the country, but is also held in high esteem in international aesthetic circles. Professor Zhu was sent to study education at the University of Hong Kong in 1914 on a government scholarship. Upon graduation, he returned to Mainland China to teach in a secondary school in Shanghai. In 1925, he went to study, again supported by Government funds, in the University of Edinburgh, where he took up English Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Ancient European History and History of Arts. He then furthered his studies in France and obtained a doctor's degree in 1933 from the University of Strasbourg. Professor Zhu is a prolific writer. His long list of publications began with Twelve Letters to Youths (1931). Since then, he has written, among others, On Aesthetics, The Psychology of Literature and Art, Abnormal Psychology, Works of Zhu Guang-qian, Poetic Theories, On Self-cultivation, On Literature, A Critique of Croce's Philosophy ， History of Western Aesthetics, Letters on Aesthetics, Miscellanies of Literature and Art, and Gleanings from the Aesthetic Field. Recently, Zhu Guang-qian's Anthology on Aesthetics (in five volumes) has also been compiled by the Shanghai Literary Press. Professor Zhu is also a conscientious translator of academic works, including Croce's Estetica come Scienze dell'espressione e Linguistica Generale, A Critique of Croce's Philosophy, History of Western Dialogues (selected translation of literary theories in Plato's Dialogues), Geoprache mit Goethe, Hegel's Aesthetics, and Vico's Scienza Nuova. Since his return from Europe, he has devoted his energies to writing and research on the one hand and the education of the younger generation on the other, while teaching at Beijing University, Qinghua University and the Central Academy of Art. To Professor Zhu, no difficulty is insurmountable, and it is never too late to start anything that is worth doing. That was why he started learning Russian on his own at the age of sixty, and it was after eighty that he translated Vico's 400,000-word Scienza Nuova. Now he has another project in mind — translating Carl Marx's Parisian Manuscripts. It is, therefore, hardly surprising for him to say, 'Just as the spring silkworms produce silk till the day they die, I will work as long as I'm alive. It is my hope that the silk that I produce, together with what others have produced, can bring a little warmth to the world.' ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS 15