Bulletin Number Five 1984

27th Congregation published volumes; his Reminiscences o f My Works was published in 1981; he is now also able to push forward in earnest the task o f translating Herzen'sMy Past and Thoughts written during the reign o f Nicholas I ， which he first secretly began in the attic o f his house back in 1973. These are words o f tear and blood straight from his heart, and they are indeed the cry o f the conscience o f China which had just taken such a painful lesson. 'Audacity, more audacity and always audacity!', so cried the French revolutionary Danton, and these words deeply moved Ba Jin when he was in his twenties. He is now already eighty, but looking back upon the long, hard journey he has made, can one find any better words to sum it up? Ba Jin has now stood up again. He is the Chair man o f the Association o f Chinese Writers, a Vice- Chairman o f the All-China Federation o f Literary and A rt Circles, the Honorary Chairman o f the Feder ation o f lite ra ry and A rt Circles o f Shanghai, a Delegate to the F ifth People's Congress and also a Vice-Chairman o f the F ifth People's Political Con sultative Conference. Publication o f the Bimonthly Harvest which he founded was resumed in 1979. His works especially Family and Cold Nights have been translated into many foreign languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian. He was awarded the Dante International Award by the Dante Alighieri Society o f Italy in 1982, and also the Commandeur o f Legion d'honneur by President Mitterrand o f France in person in 1983. These are but a measure o f the honour and respect w ith which he and his works are now being held in China and abroad. Ba Jin had visited Hong Kong many times during the thirties, and has also stopped over here since the War, so he is no stranger in this port city o f the south. It is indeed a great honour for The Chinese University o f Hong Kong that he can be present here w ith us today at this Congregation, and surely the people o f Hong Kong do also feel heartened and honoured to have his presence amongst them. Mr. Chancellor, in recognition o f Ba Jin's immense contribution to the modern literary move ment o f China throughout the past sixty years, in recognition o f his moral courage and life-long search for truth, and in recognition o f his powerful call upon the Chinese people for improving themselves and keeping up w ith this rapidly changing age, may I request Your Excellency to confer upon Mr. Ba Jin the Degree o f Doctor o f literature , honoris causa. Professor William Watson, CBE Ever since the accidental discovery o f the famous Rosetta stone around the turn o f the 18th century by a Napoleonic expeditionary force to Egypt, it seemed to have become a time-honoured tradition for archae ologists or would-be archaeologists to march along side troops, especially in the Near and Middle East. It could not therefore have been entirely accidental that the young Intelligence Officer William Watson should, after six years' o f service in places like Egypt and India, find the lure o f antiquity irresistable. As a matter o f fact, the life-long scholarly pursuit set o ff by this potent experience went further afield beyond the Middle East to faraway China and Japan, whence the riches o f the art o f these two ancient civilizations were brought much closer to the Western world. Bom in 1917 during the First World War, the young William Watson read Modern and Medieval Languages in Gonville and Caius at Cambridge, and upon graduation found himself on the eve o f another devastating general war, which was to involve him in m ilitary service o f the most unusual kind. When peace returned he decided cipher and secret rendezvous were no country for him, and traded them for amore placid existence at that hallowed institution, the British Museum, where as Assistant Keeper for the next two decades he became engaged in deciphering a totally different sort o f secret for the benefit o f the general public. First w ith the Department o f British and Medieval Antiquities and then the Department o f Oriental Antiquities, he was during this period mainly interested in Japanese sculptures and Shang and Zhou bronzes o f ancient China, on which a number o f studies were subsequently published, incorporating 4 NEWS