Göran Malmqvist

Göran Malmqvist was born on 6 June 1924, in Jönköping, Sweden.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aftonbladet.se/a/K3kAxe|title=Akademiledamoten Göran Malmqvist död|website=Aftonbladet|date=18 October 2019 |accessdate=20 October 2019}} Following introductory studies of Chinese under Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren at Stockholm University, Malmqvist studied in China in 1948–1950.{{Cite web|url=https://www.svt.se/kultur/sa-minns-kollegorna-goran-malmqvist|title=Så minns kollegorna Göran Malmqvist: "En Indiana Jones-typ"|date=18 October 2019|website=SVT Nyheter|accessdate=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019040728/https://www.svt.se/kultur/sa-minns-kollegorna-goran-malmqvist|archive-date=19 October 2019|url-status=live}} He then returned to Stockholm, taking a Licentiate of Arts degree in 1951. His international research career started shortly thereafter with a lectureship in Chinese at the University of London in 1953–1955.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aftonbladet.se/a/opPaq7|title=KULTUR: Malmqvist blir svår att ersätta i Akademien|website=Aftonbladet|date=18 October 2019 |accessdate=20 October 2019}} He was then appointed Swedish cultural attaché in Peking and worked in China in 1956–1958.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gp.se/1.19303745|title=Göran Malmqvist – en initierad ciceron|website=gp.se|date=18 October 2019|accessdate=20 October 2019}}

After his years in China he moved to Australia in 1958, where he worked for seven years at the Australian National University in Canberra.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gp.se/1.19298868|title=Akademiledamot avliden|first=Stefan Bjarnefors,Carl Magnus|last=Juliusson|website=gp.se|date=18 October 2019|accessdate=20 October 2019}} After some important essays on Chinese language history he was appointed Professor of Chinese at the university in 1961. During his professorship at the Australian National University, Malmqvist published academic articles on both old Chinese and modern Chinese.{{Cite web|url=https://www.boktugg.se/2019/10/18/akademiledamoten-goran-malmqvist-ar-dod/|title=Svenska Akademien: Ledamoten Göran Malmqvist är död|date=18 October 2019|accessdate=20 October 2019}} The articles concerned e.g. phonological issues and literary dialects during the Han dynasty, the syntax of bound forms in Sïchuanese and western Mandarin phonology.

In 1965, Malmqvist was called to Stockholm as Professor of Sinology, particularly Modern Chinese, at the newly established Section of Chinese in the Department of Oriental Languages at Stockholm University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.svt.se/kultur/goran-malmqvist-ar-dod|title=Akademiledamoten Göran Malmqvist är död|date=18 October 2019|website=SVT Nyheter|accessdate=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019031339/https://www.svt.se/kultur/goran-malmqvist-ar-dod|archive-date=19 October 2019|url-status=live}} Back in Stockholm, his career as a translator also began, with a series of interpretations of Tang dynasty lyrics in the anthology Det förtätade ögonblicket (The compact moment).Göran Malmqvist, Det förtätade ögonblicket (The compacted moment), Stockholm : Forum, 1965 Malmqvist translated more than 40 volumes of Chinese literature from different epochs, different Chinese varieties, and different literary genres.{{cite web | url=https://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/goran-malmqvist-has-passed-away | title=Göran Malmqvist has passed away | publisher=Swedish Academy | accessdate=19 October 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019150700/https://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/goran-malmqvist-has-passed-away | archive-date=19 October 2019 | url-status=live}}

In 1971, Malmqvist published several textbooks including Nykinesisk grammatik (Grammar of Modern Chinese) and Nykinesisk fonetik (Phonetics of Modern Chinese), a number of translations, chiefly in the academic journal Orientaliska studier (Oriental studies), and the large section on Chinese literature 500–1779 in the joint Nordic Litteraturens världshistoria (World history of literature). This was followed in 1973 with the section on The literature of China 1780–1890 and Chinese literature 1890–1965. The same year he published the translation of Lao She’s short stories in Det sorgsna skrattet (The sorrowful laugh).Lao She, Det sorgsna skrattet, Stockholm : Forum, 1972, {{ISBN|91-37-05185-7}} In 1974, Malmqvist published the popular volume Kinesiska är inte svårt (Chinese isn't difficult).Göran Malmqvist, Kinesiska är inte svårt, Stockholm : Aldus, 1974, {{ISBN|91-0-039660-5}}

During the 1970s, he was also working on the translation of the over thousand page picaresque novel Shui Hu zhuan. The Swedish title is Berättelser från träskmarkerna (Tales from the swamps) and the work appeared in four volumes between 1976 and 1979.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bokborsen.se/|title=Berättelser från träskmarkerna | Bokbörsen|website=www.bokborsen.se|accessdate=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015125842/https://www.bokborsen.se/|archive-date=15 October 2019|url-status=dead}} He also translated the five volumes of Xī Yóu Jì (Journey to the West, with the Swedish title Färden till västern), a 16th-century story of how in the 7th century the pilgrim Xuanzang brings the holy writings of Buddhism from India to China.{{Cite web|url=https://www.svt.se/kultur/goran-malmqvist-analys|title=Malmqvists översättning är så bra att orden inte räcker till|date=18 October 2019|website=SVT Nyheter|accessdate=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019045739/https://www.svt.se/kultur/goran-malmqvist-analys|archive-date=19 October 2019|url-status=live}} During the 1970s and 1980s, Malmqvist's research turned chiefly to classical Chinese philology, syntax and semantics.

Göran Malmqvist was elected to the Swedish Academy on 11 April 1985 and admitted on 20 December 1985. Malmqvist succeeded the literary historian Henry Olsson to Chair number 5. From the time after his election to the Swedish Academy, the over five-hundred page biography on his teacher Bernhard Karlgren was of particular note: Bernhard Karlgren – ett forskarporträtt in 1995; (Bernhard Karlgren – portrait of a scholar).Göran Malmqvist, Bernhard Karlgren : ett forskarporträtt, Stockholm : Norstedt, 1995, {{ISBN|91-1-955092-8}} Malmqvist here follows Karlgren's path through the pioneering era of Sinology from his early dialectological fieldwork in China in 1910–1912, which aimed at reconstructing the sound pattern of ancient Chinese.{{Cite web|url=https://www.svenskaakademien.se/svenska-akademien/ledamotsregister/malmqvist-goran|title=Malmqvist, Göran | Svenska Akademien|website=www.svenskaakademien.se|accessdate=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910105908/https://www.svenskaakademien.se/svenska-akademien/ledamotsregister/malmqvist-goran|archive-date=10 September 2019|url-status=live}}

Following the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Chinese author Mo Yan in 2012, Malmqvist was criticized for a possible conflict of interest, as he had close personal and economic relations to Mo Yan. Malmqvist had translated several of Mo Yan's works into Swedish and published some through his own publishing house. Mo Yan had also written a laudatory preface to one of Malmqvist's own books, and been a close friend of Malmqvist's wife for 15 years. The Nobel committee denied that this constituted a conflict of interest, and said that it would have been absurd for Malmqvist to recuse.{{cite web |url=http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201211080116 |title=Friend of writer Mo Yan serves on Nobel Prize selection panel - AJW by the Asahi Shimbun |accessdate=20 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709123510/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201211080116 |archivedate=9 July 2013 }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.thelocal.se/20121106/44274|title=Nobel academy member 'friends with Mo Yan'|date=6 November 2012|newspaper=The Local Sweden|accessdate=18 Oct 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018142201/https://www.thelocal.se/20121106/44274|archive-date=18 October 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/18/was-there-a-conflict-of-interest-behind-the-nobel-literature-prize/|title=Was there a conflict of interest behind the Nobel literature prize?|first=Elias|last=Groll|accessdate=18 Oct 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018142159/https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/10/18/was-there-a-conflict-of-interest-behind-the-nobel-literature-prize/|archive-date=18 October 2019|url-status=live}}

• Det förtätade ögonblicket: T’ang-lyrik (1965)[https://www.gp.se/cmlink/g%C3%B6ran-malmqvist-var-en-kraftsamlande-spr%C3%A5kl%C3%A4rare-och-%C3%B6vers%C3%A4ttare-1.19333870 Göran Malmqvist - var en kraftsamlande språkstudie] GöteborgsPosten Retrieved 20 October 2019
• Problems and methods in Chinese linguistics (1964){{Cite document|title=Problems and Methods in Chinese Linguistics|first=Nils Göran David|last=Malmqvist|date=20 October 1964|publisher=Australian National University}}
• Han phonology and textual criticism (1963){{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBiyuzoiF7UC&pg=PA60 |title=From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn According to Tung Chung-shu|first1=Sarah A.|last1=Queen|date=28 August 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521482264}}
• Gunnar Martins samling av kinesisk och japansk litteratur (1947)[https://www.ae-info.org/ae/User/Malmqvist_G%C3%B6ran/Publications?skin=raw ae-info *- Göran Malmqvist books.] Retrieved 20 October 2019
• 111 nykinesiska satsmönster (1973)
• Nykinesisk grammatik (1973)
• Kinesiska är inte svårt (1974)
• Nykinesisk fonetik (1974)
• Nykinesiska satsmönster (1981)
• Vägar till Kina: Göran Malmqvist 60 år (1984)
• Henry Olsson: Inträdestal i Svenska akademien (1985)
• Bernhard Karlgren: Ett forskarporträtt (1995)
• Nio röster från Taiwan: Modern kinesisk poesi (1999)
• Haiku för ros och oros skull (2002)
• Strövtåg i svunna världar (2005)
• Guldfisken som älskar att sjunga Mozart (2013)

• {{in lang|sv}} Stol nr 5 – Göran Malmqvist, Official biography by Jan Arnald, Swedish Academy: Stockholm, 2005.

• Göran Malmqvist, A selective guide to Chinese literature, 1900–1949. 4 vol. Leiden, 1988–1990.
• Göran Malmqvist, Modern Chinese literature and its social context, Nobel Symposium, 32. Stockholm, 1977.
• Göran Malmqvist, Problems and Methods in Chinese Linguistics, The Australian National University: Canberra, 1962. is a compact introduction to Chinese linguistics.
• {{in lang|sv}} Göran Malmqvist, Bernhard Karlgren: Ett forskarporträtt, Stockholm: Norstedts, 1995, {{ISBN|91-1-955092-8}}
• {{in lang|sv}} Göran Malmqvist, Det förtätade ögonblicket (The compacted moment), Stockholm: Forum, 1965
• {{in lang|sv}} Lao She, Det sorgsna skrattet, Stockholm: Forum, 1972, {{ISBN|91-37-05185-7}}
• {{in lang|sv}} N.G.D. Malmqvist, Kinesiska är inte svårt, Stockholm: Aldus, 1974, {{ISBN|91-0-039660-5}}

{{Commons category-inline|Göran Malmqvist}}

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Category:1924 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:Alumni of the University of London

Category:Linguists from Sweden

Category:Members of the Swedish Academy

Category:People from Jönköping

Category:Stockholm University alumni

Category:Swedish expatriates in China

Category:Swedish expatriates in Australia

Category:20th-century Swedish historians

Category:Swedish sinologists

Category:Translators from Chinese

Category:Translators to Swedish

Category:20th-century Swedish translators

Category:Cultural attachés

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences