Sanders, Alan J.K. 1937-
Sanders, Alan J.K. 1937-
(Alan John Kelday Sanders)
PERSONAL:
Born July 22, 1937, in London, England; son of John Kelday and Lilian Sanders; married Nora Nicolaides, 1965 (divorced, 1997); married Tina Tamman (a translator), June 15, 2000; children: Iain Alexander Kelday, Alistair John Kelday. Ethnicity: "English." Education: Attended Joint Services School for Linguists, 1956-58, and Mongolian State University, 1968-69. Politics: "None."
ADDRESSES:
Home—29 Cardinal Close, Reading RG4 8BZ, England. E-mail—alan.sanders@fsmail.net.
CAREER:
Writer. British Broadcasting Corp., Reading, England, Russian monitor and editor, 1961-90, manager of Hong Kong office, c. 1971-75; University of London, London School of Oriental and African Studies, London, England, lecturer in Mongolian studies, 1991-95; independent writer and specialist on Mongolia, Reading, 1996—. Military service: Royal Air Force, senior technician, 1956-60; became sergeant.
MEMBER:
Institute of Linguists (fellow).
AWARDS, HONORS:
British Council scholar in Mongolia, 1968-69.
WRITINGS:
The People's Republic of Mongolia: A General Reference Guide, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1968.
Mongolia: Politics, Economy, and Society, Lynne Rienner (Boulder, CO), 1987.
(With J. Bat-Ireedui) Mongolian Phrasebook, Lonely Planet (Oakland, CA), 1995.
Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), 1996, revised and enlarged edition, 2003.
(With J. Bat-Ireedui) Colloquial Mongolian, Routledge (New York, NY), 1999.
Contributor to books, including The Turkic Peoples of the World, edited by Bainbridge, KPI, 1993; Atlas of the World's Languages, edited by Moseley and Asher, Routledge (New York, NY), 1994; Mongolia in Transition, edited by Bruun and Odgaard, Curzon, 1996; Land-Locked States of Africa and Asia, edited by Hodder, Lloyd, and McLachlan, Frank Cass, 1998; and Parliaments in Asia, edited by Norton and Ahmed, Frank Cass, 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including Far Eastern Economic Review, Asian Affairs, Asian Survey, World Today, China Now, Linguist, and Focus.
SIDELIGHTS:
Alan J.K. Sanders told CA: "In 1961 I joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Monitoring Service, which listens to the world's radio and television stations, translates news reports, and sends them to government departments, academic institutions, the press, and the BBC's own broadcasters. For the next ten years I monitored Moscow radio broadcasts in Russian. Monitoring sometimes received Mongolian news agency reports in Russian, and for background I read the Mongolia article in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica written by Owen Lattimore, then I read his Nomads and Commissars and Rene MacColl's The Land of Genghis Khan.
During a routine visit to Collets Russian Book Shop in London one day, I found a copy of a Mongolian- Russian phrase book, and in August, 1964, I discovered a Mongolian-Russian dictionary. I began a subscription to some Mongolian newspapers and decided to compile my notes and cuttings into a manuscript, which the Oxford University Press published as The People's Republic of Mongolia: A General Reference Guide.
"In the winter of 1968-69 I took leave from the BBC to study Mongolian on a British Council scholarship in Ulaanbaatar. In 1971 Monitoring appointed me manager for four years of its Hong Kong office, which monitored broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese from China's southern provinces and Tibet. An excellent weekly news magazine was published in Hong Kong, the Far Eastern Economic Review, whose editor challenged me to write for it. My first article appeared in 1972, on the establishment of Mongolian-Japanese diplomatic relations. From 1872 to 1992 I wrote more than 200 articles, mostly about Mongolia, but also Chinese Inner Mongolia, Tuba, the Koreas, Siberia, and Soviet Central Asia. My last articles and book reviews appeared in 1998, although its Asia Yearbook continued to publish my annual reports on Mongolia until 2002.
"In the 1970s and 1980s I served as secretary, then treasurer of the Anglo-Mongolian Society. In August, 1987, I went to the fifth International Congress of Mongolists in Ulaanbaatar, which inaugurated the International Association for Mongolian Studies, and attended several subsequent congresses, held every five years. The first British-Mongolian Round Table meeting, in Ulaanbaatar in 1987, brought together government and business representatives of the two countries.
"From 1991 to 1995 I was a lecturer in Mongolian studies at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, teaching Mongolian language and modern history to undergraduates. Since 1996 I have been an independent scholar and have continued to write books and articles about Mongolia. Through membership in the Mongolia Society, which is based at Indiana University, I have established good contacts with Mongolia scholars working in the United States.
"Over some forty years my interest in Mongolia has enabled me to meet some outstanding Mongolians, including President Ochirbat, Speaker Bagabandi, Prime Ministers Amarjargal and Enkhayar, members of Parliament Oyuun and Khulan, academicians Bira and others too numerous to name. I have known a succession of Mongolian ambassadors to the United Kingdom. I have enjoyed the friendship of British ambassadors to Mongolia, and many other British officials and businessmen with whom I have shared our enthusiasm for Mongolians and Mongolia."