Comments on: John DeFrancis, 1911-2009: You Can't Do That Anymore

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:56:24 +0000

“It is to all the Old Wangs of the world that John devoted his whole life…”
rofl

By: Hao Hao Report

Hao Hao Report — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:46:31 +0000

Someone thinks this story is fantastic…

This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….

By: hsknotes

hsknotes — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:57:40 +0000

Wasn’t the advocacy for script reform really kind of a ‘gringo who couldn’t handle the characters’ thing? I mean, I understood he cared deeply for people like ‘Old Wang’, but wasn’t Old Wang’s problem that he was poor and had no schooling, not that his orthographic system was maybe more complex than other parts of the world? Weren’t there illiterates the world over, even in places with full alphabetical systems? Doesn’t Taiwan and large parts of the mainland china have very very high literacy rates in many places, especially those places where there is schooling?

By: lu

lu — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:42:03 +0000

I think I’ll order In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan from amazon right away. :)

By: John DeFrancis | Sinosplice: Life

John DeFrancis | Sinosplice: Life — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:55:58 +0000

[...] Brendan O’Kane (on his site) [...]

By: Dorrie

Dorrie — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:01:01 +0000

Может это банально, но просто хотелось поблагодарить автора. Обычно комментаторы заваливают своими проблемами и вопросами, а спасибо нынче не в ходу, чтобы не посчитали комментарий за спам. Но поверьте, спасибо иногда говорить надо.

By: Magnus

Magnus — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:02:46 +0000

Hi, Brendan and thanks for the post. I studied Chinese with the DeFrancis series in the late 70′s and early 80′s and taught Chinese using his book in the mid 80′s. Although the texts were dated I liked them very much. They describe an ideal Chinese world of books, writing brushes, nimble cup wine drinking whilst playing huaquan,etc etc. The American student Vincent White (Ch. name Bai Wenshan) courts the daughter of mr Gao and chats with professor Wannamaker at the Three Friends Bookstore. This world was constructed by DeFrancis at the same time as China was in the same state as north Korea is now.
There where no pictures of the author in the books but I always imagined him as a tall man in a Hawaii shirt with a well-groomed moustache. And, sure enough, when I met him in 1995, this was exactly what he looked like!

By: Prince Roy

Prince Roy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:12:26 +0000

@Todd:

Thanks, I’ll check that out. Maybe he mellowed out a bit over the years–I seem to remember he advocated a much more hard-line stance in the Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy book.

By: Jim G.

Jim G. — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:43:22 +0000

Nice one. Keep posting.

By: Michael Jacobson

Michael Jacobson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:05:25 +0000

Nice to see you posting again. Will have to try and give those a read over my long break.