Macau Ricci Newsletter 5

No. 5 － August 2005

The last six months , since our last Newsletter, have been a time of continuing effort to develop our on-going activities, including the forums, cultural dialogue through our publications, and our latest project, the “History and Memory” conference scheduled for this coming December. Our progress on these fronts is presented here below.

Forums

If you live in Macau, you may have attended one or another of our popular Forums; some of you are even regular participants. By consulting our website, it is easy to follow these encounters, which aim at a better understanding of today's China, from very different angles. For example: the teaching of law (Roderick O'Brien as speaker); the quickly disappearing old Beijing (with Charles Chauderlot and his ink brush drawings); or some special regions of the country (“Macau : An Economy in transition”, by José Isac Duarte). The attendance usually reaches 20 to 35 people; our small conference room cannot contain more. To respect our time-table, very often we have to limit the number of questions from the floor; but conversation continues more freely around a simple buffet. We appreciate very much these occasions to facilitate exchanges between local scholars and visiting personalities.

神州交流― Chinese Cross Currents (CCC)

In our last Newsletter, we presented the special issue on “Law and Order: Chinese and Western Traditions.” The second issue of this year, with the help of Brent Johnson, focused on “Success and Values” in contemporary society. The third, just released, is dedicated to “Education and Society: Dilemmas and Challenges.” Yves Camus and Sister Laura Chau were especially involved in its making. Now, Eric Sautedé, Chief Editor of the quarterly, is preparing the last issue of the year, the theme of which is: “Living in Harmony: development and environment .” Other members of the Institute regularly join the Editing Committee of the journal, and you may see their signature, for example in the Book Review section.

While most of the articles are related to China, some introduce to Chinese and non-Chinese readers alike reflections on important issues (“‘The Media and the Tsunami of December 2004’and the meaning of world solidarity”, in CCC 2-2 ), or offer terms of comparison of how a problem is tackled in a variety of places (see “Russian Education and Society” and an article in favor of “Critical Pedagogy”, in CCC 2-3 ). It is our policy not only to focus on China, but also to encourage dialogue, in particular by offering reflections on important matters to people who are concerned with problems outside of China.

Symposium

The same can also be said of the preparation of our next symposium which will have for general theme “History and Memory.” We have invited Chinese scholars and non-Chinese academics studying China, and a good number of other researchers whose publications deal with South-Africa, Israel and other places. In all these countries History is clearly shaped by Memory. We do hope that the variety of cases presented during the Symposium will invite us to some deeper reflections, not only on epistemological issues, but above all on the relevance of Memory, with its necessity and its biases, for self- and mutual understanding in today's world.

Since last February, under the leadership of Luís Sequeira, Eric Sautedé, César Guillén-Nuñez, Tereza Sena and other members of the Institute were actively engaged in the process of inviting speakers, selecting submitted papers and making all the practical preparation for this international event. Though it can be truly hard work at times, it is always stimulating and gratifying for all of us.

Personnel

In May, Sister Laura Chau, one of the members of MRI, had to leave us for another assignment in Hong Kong. We miss her. She helped so much with her friendly and efficient contacts in book-shops across the border, in Gongbei, with her command of English and Chinese (Cantonese and Putonghua), with her participation in many activities of the Institute. It was difficult to find someone to take her place.

Among the candidates for the job, Catarina Pang was selected. After a short training with Sr. Laura, she is now well integrated into MRI team, where she has surely enough work to fill her full-time position. Some of you may have already received e-mails with her signature.

In July, Ignatius Futo had to leave us to be sent to Taiwan, where another institution will benefit from his expertise in librarianship.

Books and periodicals continue to come regularly to our library. Some are new purchases. Others in greater number — more than 180 boxes — have been shipped three weeks ago from Taipei, as announced in our last Newsletter. Jerónimo Hung is kept busy cataloguing these materials as a special collection in the Institute's library, which, thanks to such efficient work, is rapidly gaining in value, for the service of researchers. Contact him for any enquiry.

Research Projects

Inter-religious dialogue

The project of publishing a Guide of the main Buddhist Temples in China is about to be brought to completion. Thanks to the assistance of many Chinese friends, Christian Cochini was able to achieve his program of visits to some 150 Buddhist temples, among the most important ones in the areas of the Han nationality. He owes a special debt of gratitude to the abbots, monks, nuns and lay persons who have received him with great openness in their monasteries, and provided him with first-hand documentation.

The book, to be published in 2006, will be the first of its kind in western language. It will serve as an instrument for fostering inter-religious dialogue between overseas Christians and Chinese Buddhists, and will also be a useful reference book for the international Buddhist community. Buddhism is so intertwined with Chinese history and culture that the long presence of these Chinese communities living in Buddhist monasteries and temples on Chinese soil throws an interesting light on some important chapters of the history of China.

Acta Pekinensia

The Institute's website gives the following presentation of the project:

"The German Jesuit Kilian Stumpf (1655-1720) lived in Beijing from 1695 till his death in 1720. Among other important offices, he was Apostolic Notary in charge of the annual report from the Jesuit mission in China to the Superior General, particularly during the Chinese Rites Controversy and the apostolic visitation of the papal legate Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon to China (1705-1710).

The Acta Pekinensia (Facts from Beijing) reports in 1,465 pages the events of the years 1705 to 1712 of the Tournon legation. The huge manuscript is based on letters and reports by other missionaries, on eye-witness accounts, on Stumpf's own observations, on sources from the Jesuit archives in Beijing, and on Chinese and Manchu sources from the Palace Archives. The Jesuits had planned to have the Acta Pekinensia printed, but did not succeed."

Up to now, more than half of the manuscript has been transcribed into electronic files by Latin experts of the European College of Gnesno, Poland. One third of these files is already translated into English by senior Jesuits in Australia, helped by the collaboration of Jesuits well versed in Latin from Campion Hall, Oxford.

Professors Claudia von Collani, of Würzburg University, and António de Saldanha, of the Instituto Português do Oriente, are in charge of cultural and historical notes and commentaries.

Professor Paul Rule, of Melbourne, oversees the work of transcription, translation and annotation of the Latin text. Professor von Collani and Paul Rule himself came to Macau at the end of June for a working meeting with other members of the editorial committee.

After the meeting, Yves Camus went to Australia. First he attended the Ninth Biennial Conference of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia, held in Bendigo, Victoria, a major regional center of Chinese-Australian life, culture and business since the 1850's. In this, he had been helped by Jeremy Clark, a very good friend of MRI, who during the conference read two papers on Catholic communities in China.

The second purpose of the trip was to visit and thank some of the Jesuit translators of the Acta Pekinensia. With the help of Professor Rule, he was able to meet in Melbourne with Jesuit Fathers Joseph Holland and John Begley who, in their semi-retirement, performed the hard task of translating Latin of uneven quality, which described the suspense generated by the conversations and discussions held in and outside the Chinese Imperial Court.

Visits

In the beginning of July, Professor Han Qi, from the Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, stayed with us for one week. A member of the editorial committee of shen zhou jiao liu ― Chinese Cross Currents, Professor Han has been very helpful in the preparation of the symposium already mentioned by making contacts with Chinese historians. During his stay, he worked mainly in the Historical Archives of Macau. He is studying old and little known Chinese documents concerning the history of Catholic missions in his country.

For the first time, MRI offered a one month summer scholarship. The beneficiary was Mr. Lu Jinjun. His candidature was presented by Artur Wardega, who is now back for good at the Institute. He had met Mr. Lu in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, where he spent two months of work in a leprosarium. In this letter, we introduce Mr. Lu because we enjoyed his presence among us, as one of so many young intellectuals and professionals of China, especially in less known cities, who forge the future of their country through hard work and competence in new technologies and professional skills.

From July 12 to August 12, Lu Jinjun was the first to benefit from a one month scholarship MRI offers to young researchers from China. Just 30 years old, he teaches at the Shaanxi University of Technology, formally known, at the time of his graduation, as Hanzhong Teachers College. The change of name occurred in 2002. Artur Wardega was attracted by his eagerness to introduce computer technologies in this corner of Shaanxi province in order to bolster its development.

Currently, Lu Jinjun is attached to the Physics Department of the University, but teaches website technology and multi-media education to students from various departments. His wife studies at the Shaanxi Normal University for an MA in education. They cannot afford to study at the same time, as, to do so, both would have to quit their jobs, lose their salaries, but pay tuition fees without any warranty to be re-employed later by the same unit. Yet both have decided to go on. After she gets her degree, his turn will come to further his studies. Then, they will pursue the career of teachers, which includes, for him, side activities in helping local enterprises to up-grade their management and their productivity by using advanced computer technologies.

Meanwhile their son is taken care of by his parents in the village where he grew up. As part of the agreement, during his stay at MRI, besides kindly giving a hand to one or another scholar in their research, Lu Jinjun wrote a paper on some aspects of education through internet in China, which will soon be published.

During his stay in Hanzhong, Artur Wardega gave, in March, a lecture at the Shaanxi University of Technology, attended by 150 students. The title, which indicates his field of research for many years, was: “European Realist and Romantic Literature: the evolution from Realist Novel to Romantic Novel, an explanation of Cervantes' Don Quixote as main representative; an analytic comparison of Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers by Goethe; and the influence of 20th century European Romantic Literature on Chinese New Literature.”

Other research and publications

César Guillén-Nuñez continues with the preparation of a book on the Jesuit College of St. Paul. A detailed book proposal has already been presented to the Cultural Institute of Macau, which will co-sponsor the book. At a seminar on George Chinnery, organized by the Hong Kong Museum of History to commemorate the 180th anniversary of the painter's arrival in South China, he presented a paper entitled “A Possible Source for Chinnery's Street Scenes”, on June 22. This Seminar was part of a comprehensive exhibition of Chinnery's paintings at the Museum, the largest ever of its kind in Asia. César Guillén-Nuñez is also finalizing a revision of an article on the Façade of the Jesuit College of St. Paul. The article, which comprises a translation into Spanish and a collection of images, is to be published in the near future by the Museo de Pontevedra, in Galicia, Spain.

Tereza Sena, in collaboration of experts on technical matters, is progressing in the building up of a Database on Macau history. Among other activities, she is finalizing some publications. On the 14th of March, during the “Third International Conference on Missionary Linguistics (1492–c.1850)”, she gave also a lecture on “Macau as a Center and Support for Linguistic Training: Institutions, Missionaries, Works — Strategies and Methods.”