Seminar Series – Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne
Professor John Minford, Australian National University
5.30pm, Thursday 6 August 2015
Room 321, Level 3, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne
The Hong Kong poet, essayist, short story writer, literary and film critic and irrepressible cultural activist Leung Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞, was better known by his randomly chosen pen-name Yah-See (Ye-si 也斯), and by his witty post-colonial nickname PK. He died of lung cancer in the last days of 2012, leaving behind a voluminous oeuvre, and is remembered fondly by the thousands of readers and former students in Hong Kong whose lives he touched. He was an ardent promoter of Hong Kong culture. Ironically, however, he is better known and respected as a serious writer in France and Germany, where he was a frequent visitor, and where his work was widely translated.
John Minford, Professor of Chinese at the ANU, is currently editing Leung’s Collected Poems for publication, as part of a new series recently funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In this talk he will discuss Leung’s work and will read some of his own translations.
Registration essential.