Malmqvist, N(ils) G(öran) D(avid) 1924-

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MALMQVIST, N(ils) G(öran) D(avid) 1924-

PERSONAL: Born 1924. Education: Attended Uppsala University.

ADDRESSES: Office—Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.

CAREER: Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, professor emeritus; sinologist; advisory board member for Journal of Translation Studies and Renditions. Nobel Prize in Literature, member of selection committee.

MEMBER: Academia Europaea (founding member), Swedish Academy, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, History and Antiquities.

AWARDS, HONORS: Knighthood of the Northern Star; Royal Prize, Swedish Academy; Translation Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Gold Medal of Merit, H. M. King Karl XVI Gustav; Translation Prize, Swedish Writers Association; Elsa Thulin Medal for Translation; honorary doctorate, Stockholm University; honorary doctorate, Charles University; honorary fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

WRITINGS:

Den Långa Floden. Utdrag ur Kinas Litteratur Genom Tre Årtusenden av Göran Malmqvist, Forum (Stockholm, Sweden), 1970.

Kinesiska är Inte Svärt, Aldus (Stockholm, Sweden), 1974.

(Editor) Modern Chinese Literature and Its Social Context, Institute för Orientalska Språk (Stockholm, Sweden), 1977.

A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature, 1990-1949, E. J. Brill (New York, NY), 1988-1990.

(Translator) Shang Ch'in, The Frozen Torch: Select Prose Poems, Wellsweep Press (London, England), 1992.

Claes Thell: Keramik: Östasiatiska Museet, 22 Oktober-28 November 1993, Östasiatiska Museet (Stockholm, Sweden), 1993.

Bernhard Karlgren: Ett Forskarporträtt, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1995.

(Coeditor with Michelle Yeh) Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: N. G. D. Malmqvist, professor emeritus at Stockholm University, has been teaching Chinese in Europe and Australia for over forty years and has translated over thirty volumes and 200 literary pieces from Chinese. He has also played a large role in academic and social exchanges between Sweden and China and between the Western and Chinese cultures.

Malmqvist's translated works include The Frozen Torch, a selection of prose poems by Taiwan surrealist writer Shang Ch'in, whose work echoes predecessor Henri Michaux. In World Literature Today Philip F. Williams identified Shang Ch'in as a prominent Chinese author of the twentieth century, his more distinguished work acclimating "Western surrealism to a party mythicized Chinese setting in a convincing and unforced manner."

Malmqvist edited Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry with Michelle Yeh. Frontier Taiwan is a collection of modern Chinese poetry which tells the story of the transformation of Taiwan from a little-known island to an acclaimed economic power and a democracy. Included are 400 poems written in the twentieth century. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the translations "solid, letting the work speak across cultures" and assessed the main impact of the book to be "sociopolitical, allowing connections between writers who might have had difficulty finding each other without this judicious letter of introduction."