Obituary: Zhou Haiying, 1929 – 2011

Zhou Haiying [update – Chinese: 周海婴] was born in Shanghai on September 27, 1929 as the only child  of Xu Guangping (许广平) and Lu Xun (魯迅, real name Zhou Shuren / 周树人), probably the (internationally) best-known vernacular-Chinese writer of the 20th century.

Zhou Haiying was a cadre and a politician – vice director at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television’s (SARFT) policy and regulations department, member of the CPPCC, and a member of the CCP. He studied at Peking University’s (北京大学) physics department in the early 1950s (from 1952).  He is said to have been a wireless / radio expert (无线电专家),  and – in his spare time –  a passionate photographer.

Zhou had suffered from vasculitis since May last year and had been hospitalized all the time since then. He died in Beijing on Thursday, April 7, 2011. He is survived by his wife Ma Xinyun (马新云). Their children, a son and a daughter, live in Taiwan and Japan respectively.

A farewell ceremony is scheduled at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetary on Monday.

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Related
China’s Orwell, Jeffrey Wasserstrom / Time, Dec 7, 2009
Seminar on 6-4 held in Beijing, May 24, 2009

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Weekender: Cherry Blossom, moving Northward

Bremen-Walle (South), April 2011

No matter what an environment looks like, and no matter what’s in the news, it’s cherry blossom time again, even Bremen-Walle, a place which doesn’t necessarily epitomize beauty otherwise.

The earthquakes currently seem to come and go in Japan. Not surprisingly, the usual cherry-blossom tourism has suffered this year, too, while Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office is now no longer advising against all but essential travel to Tokyo.  (If the German foreign office issued a similar statement, many citizens would probably sense a political conspiracy to get them all killed. I have met people here who even reconsider  scheduled travels to China.)

It struck me this week that I have learned much of my Chinese language skills, as far as they go, from Japanese people. To learn Chinese must be easier for them than to learn English, and some of them are easier with speaking Mandarin than with speaking English.

But to listen to non-native speakers who are still fluent in Chinese is always inspiring.

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Related
Cherry blossom in Tokyo, Deutsche Welle, April 8, 2011
Sakura Latte, This Japanese Life, Febr 22, 2011

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