Bai Lesang: Walking on the road of spreading the Chinese world

In October 2019, Professor Wu Jun attended the International Conference at the University of Aix-Marseille, met with Professor Bai Lesang in Paris to discuss academic exchange plans, and presented Chinese brushes to the latter. (Liu Yunhong/Photo)

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In mid-September 2013, Professor Zhou Xian of Nanjing University led a delegation from the Faculty of Humanities to visit the University of Artois in France to participate in the 4th International Conference of the Sino-French Academic Forum convened and chaired by Professor Jin Siyan, with the theme of "Methods and Practice of Cross-cultural Studies". It was at that meeting that I met Mr. Bai Lesan, who was then the chief inspector of Chinese at the French Ministry of National Education. I was amazed by his fluency in Chinese. At that conference, he presented a paper on the study of Chinese character culture, which made me realize first-hand that there are Europeans outside of Japan who understand Chinese more than the average Chinese – or rather, love Chinese more – than the average person. He was so passionate about the Chinese language that I was sitting across from him on the train to Paris after us, and he talked to me all the way about Chinese. Later, I read his oral autobiography, "The Chinese Road of "Black Feet": The Oral Narrative of the French Chinese Inspector of Chinese Xue Bai Lesang" (edited by Kong Hanbing, Peking University Press, 2015), and finally understood why.

When he was in his second year of university, he majored in Chinese and earned the nickname "Chinese" among his classmates. On the eve of graduating from university, he was given the opportunity to study in China, and entered Beijing Language Institute and Peking University, specializing in philosophy. He regarded his arrival in China to study as "my second birthday." "Since then, my life has been truly inseparable from the Chinese language and China." Nearly two years later, he returned to France in May 1975. "The two years of studying in Beijing have been the happiest times I have ever spent in my life."

It can be said that learning Chinese and studying in China, especially his early experience in China, was the earliest opportunity for Professor Bai Lesang to get acquainted with China and Chinese at a young age. Since then, his Chinese career has become his career. His life has also become a symbolic development of the world's Chinese language transmission.

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After returning to France from studying in China in May 1975, Professor Bai Lesang taught Chinese in secondary schools that year, and at the same time taught Chinese history at his alma mater, Paris VIII, and engaged in the translation and research of modern Chinese literature. In the late 1970s and early 80s, Professor Bai visited China twice to participate in Lu Xun's research activities. In this interview, I began with a special focus on his views on the early figures of Chinese new culture, including how to evaluate their attitudes towards the Chinese's written and historical and cultural views. In a sense, the identity, cultural meaning, and teaching issues of Chinese characters come from the attitudes, cognitions, and consensus of the early new culture.

Professor Bai's views are very clear, and he criticizes some radical attitudes in the early days of modern Chinese new culture, especially the radical opposition attitude of some representatives of new culture to this Chinese and culture, which in his opinion is unfair; Not only did it seem narrow and extreme at the time, but it also reflected the obvious inferiority, serious lack of self-confidence, and lack of self-esteem in the Chinese intellectual circles that existed in the Chinese language. I think there are some words he said very well, "language is not just a tool, but an individual's identity"; Writing (Chinese characters) is not a superficial phenomenon, "part of the soul of a people." Therefore, he also believes that the pinyin of Chinese characters in China weakens and excludes the foundation of his own cultural life to a certain extent. Moreover, he believes that in line with this narrow concept of writing, the popular and even mainstream "word-based" method in the field of Chinese language teaching is one of the concrete results of the "admiration of foreign countries" and the influence of Western cultural hegemony since the new culture. To this end, starting from the historical law of Chinese characters, standing on and respecting the historical traditions of Chinese culture, he advocated the "character-based" Chinese character teaching method that takes into account both words and words.

As far as I know, since the turn of the century, the "word-based" pedagogy advocated and practiced by Professor Bai Lesang has had a huge impact and dissemination effect not only in Europe but also in China. He emphasized that "character-based" is a teaching method based on the position and concept of mother tongue (Chinese) writing, which is not only a specific teaching technical means, but also supported by the national cultural history behind the text. The latter is an important basis for his criticism of some historical errors in the development of modern Chinese language.

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At the University of Altois and on the train to Paris, I didn't know Mr. Bai's detailed professional academic situation, but I roughly understood his status as a "big man" in the field of Chinese in the world. In 1984, he co-founded the French Chinese Language Teachers Association and served as its first secretary-general; Since 1987, he has served as president for 15 consecutive years and is currently honorary president. In 1993, he was elected as the executive director of the World Chinese Language Teaching Association and is currently the vice president. In 1998, he was appointed as the part-time Chinese Inspector General of the French Ministry of National Education. In March 2006, he was officially appointed as the first Chinese language inspector of the French Ministry of National Education.

In my understanding, the position of Chinese Inspector General of the Ministry of Education is also a national government official. Earlier, Professor Jin Siyan told me that outside of China, only France has set up Chinese language education official positions in national government agencies. That's why I should fall in love with France. It was in this position that I experienced the outstanding ability and superhuman charm of Inspector Bai Lesan. He needs to have professional achievements and status, extraordinary organizational planning tools, and an extreme passion for Chinese language education. He has all of that. He is the conductor of a language band consisting of European and world members. Moreover, he also needs to have very good physical condition. When I later asked him to visit China, he walked 10,000 brisk steps around campus every night. His pace down the stairs is elastic. He is also a foodie, and I once invited him to his home for a light meal, and I seemed to understand that his knowledge of food was not weaker than his Chinese superintendent business.

In an interview, he said, "As the chief inspector of Chinese, my main mission is to make the education of Chinese keep up with other languages and become a mainstream subject." By 2002, French Chinese teaching gradually began to publish a unified syllabus, complete subject specifications, basically as complete as English, Spanish, Russian. ”

I first met Mr. Bai in 2013. Our conversation was during his tenure as the chief superintendent of Chinese.

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At the turn of May and June 2019, I cooperated with colleagues from the Foreign Institute of Nanjing University to organize an international workshop entitled "Wen Yi Zaidao: Cross-domain Communication of Language and Literature". Professor Bai Lesang is one of the main foreign experts we have invited. During the event, he gave two lectures: "Chinese Characters as a Teaching Unit and Its Multidimensional Nature", "Cultural Teaching in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language: Defects and Problems", participated in a three-person dialogue: "World Journey: Starting from the Mother Tongue" academic dialogue (he told me privately that he appreciated this topic), and also observed the literary sharing session of Mr. Li Jingze, Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association, "Narrating Moral Benevolence and Art, Spring and Autumn Yi Qingniao Will Drink". We invited him to visit this as a professional scholar rather than a government official.

From about the mid-to-early 1980s, Teacher Bai gradually developed a relatively clear and systematic "character-based" Chinese teaching method, emphasizing the use of words and words, and compiling teaching materials based on this principle. In 1989, he edited and published "Enlightenment of the Chinese Language and Writing" (Paris, in cooperation with Zhang Pengpeng), which had a great influence; The Chinese edition of the book is "Chinese Language and Writing Enlightenment Character Textbook". It can be said that this book has established Professor Bai Lesang's reputation and status as a top Chinese language educator and research scholar. In the mid-to-late 1980s, he also conceived and formulated the first "Chinese character threshold" 400 commonly used basic Chinese character vocabulary list, which became an important indicator for French Chinese teaching and assessment. He said, "The French character standard does not only emphasize the teaching of Chinese characters, but considers the whole of Chinese language teaching. In other words, Professor Bai Lesang's Chinese teaching method imbues the teaching of Chinese characters with his systematic holistic view of language theory. This is the academic root and ideological height of his eventual ability to become the world's top Chinese language educator.

After 1990, he was appointed as an associate professor at the Paris Seven University Chinese Chinese Language. In 1997, he became a doctoral supervisor and was the first doctoral supervisor in Europe to specialize in Chinese language teaching. With the increasing influence of the "character-based" teaching method, at the turn of the century, an academic debate between "character-based" and "word-based" occurred and continued in the field of international Chinese teaching. Peking University Press has also published a collection of proceedings of international conferences, Dialogue in the Century: A Multi-Perspective Study of Chinese Character Standards and Word Standards (2012). This means that the academic controversy over the issue of Chinese language teaching has reverberated from Europe to China. Professor Bai Lesang can be called a "top" international scholar.

In 2000, he was appointed professor of the Chinese Department of the Institut des Oriental Languages and Cultures in Paris, France. The world's first Chinese professorship was established in 1814 by the Académie française, the Chinese language course at the French School of Oriental Languages and Cultures in 1840, and the Department of Chinese in 1843. At the beginning of the new century, Professor Bai Lesang presided over the revision and promulgation of a new Chinese syllabus, which profoundly influenced the teaching of Chinese language and the dissemination of Chinese culture in Europe and the world. In the years that followed, he continued to write. "My goal in recent years is to truly integrate Chinese into the common European Framework of Reference for Languages."

At this moment, I cannot help but deeply reflect on myself and feel sincerely ashamed, just when we Chinese scholars are high-profile and want to make Chinese culture go global, Professor Bai Lesang is already using his own efforts to deeply embed the Chinese language in the cultural soil and social life of Europe.

So far, Professor Bai Lesang has also been a visiting professor at more than a dozen Chinese universities such as Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Wuhan University, Nankai University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Central South University, and Northwest University. Before the pandemic, I had to visit China at least once or twice a year.

In recognition of his contributions, the French government has awarded Professor Blanc many honorary titles, including the Chevalier de l'Ordre de l'Éd'Été d'Él'Énci de l'Éncus de l'Éncité d'Él'Études d'Élété d'Él'Été d'Élété d'Él'Été d'Ordre de l'Éd'Ordre de l'Palm (2003), the Order of the Academic Palm Officer of the French Ministry of Education (2011), the Order of the Academic Palm Commander of the French Ministry of Education (2014), and the French Order of Arts and Letters (Officer Order) (2015).

"My path to sinology is still on my way." For this interview and Teacher Bai's video, I once again felt his sincerity and enthusiasm on the road of learning Chinese characters. The last time I met Mr. Bai was in 2019 at a Western restaurant near his residence on Place d'Italie in Paris. I gave him two Chinese brushes. Expect that we will have a real hug soon.

(The author is a professor at Nanjing University)

Southern Weekend Special Scholar Wu Jun