Chronology Entry
Year
2003
Text
Keating, Geoffrey. Remarks by the Consul General of Ireland at the Commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the visit of George Bernard Shaw to Shanghai.
http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/arts/SunYatSen-Shaw/GK-E.htm.
In 1933 George Bernard Shaw came to Shanghai for one day. The famous Irish writer and Nobel prize laureate came to this house to have lunch as a guest of Mme Song Qingling.
This visit received great publicity in Shanghai at the time because of the international celebrity of the writer. It is also an event which has been immortalised through the record of the visit by one of China’s literary giants, Lu Xun. Today we will have the opportunity to listen to that penetrating account.
To read Lu Xun’s account I am particularly pleased to welcome Professor Nicholas Grene, head of the English Department in Trinity College Dublin, who is an expert on Shaw and who has come to Shanghai for this commemoration.
At that lunch Shaw met Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei and Lin Yutang. That brief meeting was the most significant contact in the 20th century between an Irish writer and thinker with Chinese writers and thinkers. I have no doubt that this century will see the development of many more intellectual and cultural exchanges and much closer contact.
In the modern Shanghai of today, it is hard to believe that a mere seventy years ago, Shanghai still had its international concessions and the city was under threat from both foreign and internal forces. The visit of Shaw had a symbolic value as a gesture of solidarity with the people of Shanghai at a time of difficulty and danger.
Today in a Shanghai that is at peace, open to the world and growing in prosperity, we can celebrate the visit as a unique intellectual encounter between east and west. I am delighted for this reason to be joined today by Professor Alfredo Pastor, Dean of the China Europe International Business School and the Chairman of the Academia Sinica Europaea, a body which seeks to promote better understanding between China and Europe. Please welcome him.
http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/arts/SunYatSen-Shaw/GK-E.htm.
In 1933 George Bernard Shaw came to Shanghai for one day. The famous Irish writer and Nobel prize laureate came to this house to have lunch as a guest of Mme Song Qingling.
This visit received great publicity in Shanghai at the time because of the international celebrity of the writer. It is also an event which has been immortalised through the record of the visit by one of China’s literary giants, Lu Xun. Today we will have the opportunity to listen to that penetrating account.
To read Lu Xun’s account I am particularly pleased to welcome Professor Nicholas Grene, head of the English Department in Trinity College Dublin, who is an expert on Shaw and who has come to Shanghai for this commemoration.
At that lunch Shaw met Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei and Lin Yutang. That brief meeting was the most significant contact in the 20th century between an Irish writer and thinker with Chinese writers and thinkers. I have no doubt that this century will see the development of many more intellectual and cultural exchanges and much closer contact.
In the modern Shanghai of today, it is hard to believe that a mere seventy years ago, Shanghai still had its international concessions and the city was under threat from both foreign and internal forces. The visit of Shaw had a symbolic value as a gesture of solidarity with the people of Shanghai at a time of difficulty and danger.
Today in a Shanghai that is at peace, open to the world and growing in prosperity, we can celebrate the visit as a unique intellectual encounter between east and west. I am delighted for this reason to be joined today by Professor Alfredo Pastor, Dean of the China Europe International Business School and the Chairman of the Academia Sinica Europaea, a body which seeks to promote better understanding between China and Europe. Please welcome him.
Mentioned People (1)
Shaw, George Bernard
(Dublin 1856-1950 Ayot Saint Lawrence, Hertford) : Dramatiker, Schriftsteller ; Literatur-Nobelpreisträger 1925
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Ireland