A passion for Chinese culture

In the National Museum of Classic Books, Wilt Idema examines Lu Xun's manuscripts. Provided to China Daily

A Dutch Sinologist has spent more than 50 years studying the country's language, classic literature.

For Wilt Idema, books are the best guides in life.

As a child, the vivid descriptions of China in Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck's books sparked Idema's interest in the country. He later read classic Chinese literature and spent whole days pouring through works at the National Library of China.

The 70-year-old Dutch Sinologist recalled his half-century-long romance with Chinese culture during a recent visit to Beijing. Idema was the only Sinologist invited this year to participate in the Oriental Culture Research Program, an annual project hosted by the China International Culture Association.

Idema has served as the director of the Chinese Languages and Cultures Department at Leiden University of the Netherlands and was also director of Harvard's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.

He has studied ancient Chinese plays, novels and literature, and has authored or translated a number of influential books published in English and other languages.

Idema began learning Mandarin during middle school, because he wanted to learn a language that "has a long history yet is still active today".

"Back then, I knew little about China," says Idema, whose early influences include Dutch Sinologist and author Robert van Gulik.

Idema later studied Chinese culture at Leiden University. Finding opportunities to practice the language at the school was a huge challenge. "There were actually no Chinese-speaking teachers in our university at the time, and it was also impossible for us to study in China for political reasons," he explains.

"So when I graduated from college, I couldn't even speak a single sentence in Chinese, though I was able to read and write in it fluently."

Idema continued his academic pursuits in Japan, where he became familiar with the similarities between the Japanese and Chinese languages. Idema discovered his passion for traditional Chinese plays after a Japanese professor introduced him to some works from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). He soon began translating them into Western languages. Idema says it took him some time to really appreciate the poetic lyrics in the plays, which are closely associated with traditional Chinese poetry and have high aesthetic value.

Idema first visited China in 1978. As one of the few Westerners who understood Chinese language and culture, he was invited to work as a guide and interpreter for a tourist delegation.

While he recalls the backwardness of China in the late 1970s, Idema says he is impressed with the rapid development of the country over the last few decades. He has visited the county several times to study and teach.

He vividly remembers the "China mania" in the West when the county opened up in the 1980s, and the flood of new materials about ancient Chinese culture that appeared in the West.

While many other experts on China focused on the county's economic transformation, Idema continued to study traditional Chinese literature. "There were scholars studying law, religion and society, but not traditional Chinese literature, which was my personal interest," Idema explains.

Finding reference books for his research, especially regional publications, used to be a huge challenge, and Idema used to spend a lot of time collecting books and other materials during visits to China.

"With the Internet now, it is much more convenient," says Idema.

Idema usually chooses less-known subjects for his research and tries to get firsthand materials. In recent years, he has devoted himself to translating Chinese folk tales and writing about Chinese folk society and folk culture.

"Traditional Chinese culture is a passion. I have been studying it for 50 years and will continue to do so," says the retired professor.