 |
Lu Ting'en, a Chinese Scholar and His African Studies
Having set foot on dozen of countries in Africa and engaged in its study for some 40 years or so, Prof. Lu Ting'en, dean of the Center for African Studies of Peking University, may truly be said to have nurtured a deep affection for the African continent.
The 64-year old Prof. Lu accomplished his study in Peking University in the early days of his life. Why he chose the subject of African history as his pursuit had something to do with his life experience in his childhood, said Prof. Lu. For he felt he himself had a very close relationship to the tribulation of Africa. Therefore, his graduation thesis discussed on the problems of racial discrimination in South Africa. After graduation, he, being a youngster of only 20 years old, stayed on as an assistant to Professor Yang Renpian, who was then known as the first person in China specialized in the study of Africa.
Though Prof. Lu underwent a period of frustrations as did the other intellectuals in China he still bore in his mind Professor Yang's teaching, "Under no circumstances should the books on Africa be sold, and whatever happens, do not lose the manuscripts for lectures on Africa." Therefore, Professor Lu is now very proud of his having amassed all African books published in China, plenty of books on Africa in foreign languages and overall lecturing manuscripts since he took teaching as his career.
As linguistic tools for his African study Prof. Lu is accomplished in many languages including English, French, Russian and Swahili. And Swahili in particular, which, next only to Arabic, the primary language in Africa, is of secondary importance in the study of Africa, took him a whole year to learn it at Beijing Foreign Languages University in his fifties. The command of Swahili is of great importance to his African Studies.
Prof. Lu has jotted all his studies on Africa, rational or perpetual, down into piles of his works and theses over the past 40 years, of which he now deserves a great pride.
By PD Online staff Yin Zhili
In This Section
|