Harry Simon (sinologist)
{{Short description|German-born sinologist (1923–2019)}}
Harry Felix Simon (13 September 1923 – 7 July 2019) was a sinologist at the University of Melbourne, where he taught for 27 years.{{Cite web|last=Simon|first=Andrew Endrey, Christopher Nailer and Carol|date=2020-03-10|title=Torchbearer for Chinese studies at the University of Melbourne|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/torchbearer-for-chinese-studies-at-the-university-of-melbourne-20200310-p548nd.html|access-date=2021-08-26|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}
Early life
Harry Simon was born on 13 September 1923 in Berlin. His father was the distinguished scholar of Chinese, Manchu, and Tibetan Walter Simon,{{Cite web|title=Simon Collection|url=http://www.nla.gov.au/collections/guide-selected-collections/simon-collection|access-date=2021-08-26|website=National Library of Australia|language=en}} and the family moved to London to escape the Nazis in 1936.
Career
After studies in Chinese in London and then in Chengdu, he served as interpreter and published in Monumenta Serica and Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. After the Myer Foundation established Oriental Studies at the University of Melbourne, he became the foundation professor of Chinese there in 1961 and oversaw the growth of Asian languages there as well as playing a role in building the scholarly institutions of Asian studies in Australia.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03147539508713045|doi = 10.1080/03147539508713045|title = ASAA's formation— a twentieth birthday account|year = 1995|last1 = Legge|first1 = John|journal = Asian Studies Review|volume = 19|pages = 83–90}} He became dean of the faculty of arts between 1966-1977. Retiring from University of Melbourne in 1988, he continued his career at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, ultimately serving as vice-president of the university before moving back to Australia in 1996. In 2010, he made a major gift of Chinese books to the university's library.{{Cite web| title=News from the Chinese Collection, the University of Melbourne Library | date=July 2010 | url=http://www.alra.org.au/newsletter1007/1007_yeung_2.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806143734/http://alra.org.au/newsletter1007/1007_yeung_2.pdf | archive-date=2016-08-06}} As a scholar, he also published on translation and literature, but his contributions to Chinese linguistics may be best-known.such as https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/610617.pdf Simon, Harry F. "Some remarks on the structure of the verb complex in Standard Chinese." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 21.3 (1958): 553-557. His 1963 George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology was entitled "Some Motivations of Chinese Foreign Policy."{{Cite web|title=The George E. Morrison Lectures in Ethnology - Australian Centre on China in the World - ANU|url=http://ciw.anu.edu.au/events/morrison-lectures#acton-tabs-link--qt-morrison_lectures_qtabs-ui-tabs2|access-date=2021-08-27|website=ciw.anu.edu.au|language=en|archive-date=2022-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114121259/http://ciw.anu.edu.au/events/morrison-lectures#acton-tabs-link--qt-morrison_lectures_qtabs-ui-tabs2|url-status=dead}}