Source: Nanfang Daily, 2013-04-14, Page A06
Written by: Lei Yu
Translated by: Chen Zhiyong
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

"If we are to talk about the representatives of foreign language teaching in Sun Yat-sen University and southern China, they will be Dai Liuling and other academic forerunners. If we are to choose one representative from them, it must be Mr. Dai,” said Wang Bin, former Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, at the memorial meeting to mark the centennial of the birth of Dai Liuling held at the School yesterday.

Pioneering in foreign language teaching in southern China

A renowned foreign language linguist and translator, Dai Liuling studied in the UK in his early years and got his MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. He translated The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, co-edited Recent English Prose with Zhu Guangqian and Fang Zhong. His most well-known translation work was Thomas More’s Utopia. After his translation was published, the term “utopia” became known by more people.

This was when Dai Liuling began teaching in southern China. He taught at Sun Yat-sen University for nearly thirty years. In 1953, Dai Liuling came to SYSU and became the first Head of the Department of Foreign Languages.

"Looking back at past decades, I went here and there. I didn’t do much academic work, but my passion for foreign language teaching has remained the same.” Ou Hong, student of Dai Liuling and the first Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literature in China, read an excerpt from a letter of Mr Dai Liuling to him in the 1980s at the meeting, saying that Dai Liuling was not only a respected figure in academia but also an outstanding educator in southern China.

Half of the books in his study were thread-bound books

Dai Liuling was also a poet and essayist, and a friend of Hu Qiaomu and Wu Mi, keeping correspondence with them for a long time. Wang Bin still remembers it when he visited Dai Liuling’s study: “He was a foreign language specialist, but half of his collection were traditional Chinese thread-bound books.” Dai Liuling pointed out Wang Bin’s slight error in citing ancient documents and found proof from his own collection. Wang Bin was very impressed.

Dai Liuling was also accomplished in library science and lexicography. As early as the 1930s, he had published various influential writings on library science; in the 1950s, he supervised postgraduate students in lexicography for the first time in China. Wang Zongyan, a renowned scholar, called Mr. Dai “the best tutor” in choosing a dictionary in China. Some of his viewpoints still have profound influence today.

He never stopped writing until his last breath

"Father had three strokes in his declining years. But even as his health deteriorated, he never stopped writing.” His daughter Dai Mingsu remembers that on the night when her father was discharged from hospital after a stroke, a publisher visited and asked whether Mr. Dai was willing to write a preface for a book on Shakespeare. Mr. Dai agreed against the doctor’s advice. He had another stroke on the night when he finished writing the preface and passed away.

In his last days, Dai Liuling didn’t talk about his conditions with visitors. When his PhD candidate visited him from Nanjing, his only concern was the dissertation. He discussed it in his bed in the hospital.

"Dai Liuling is more than a pioneer in foreign language teaching. For foreign language education in southern China, he is a symbol, a landmark,” said Wang Bin in front of the white marble statue of Mr. Dai Liuling in the School of Foreign Language, Sun Yat-sen University. He hoped that future generations could inherit the academic spirit of the forerunners including Mr. Dai and make foreign language education and research flourish in Guangdong.