Activity Outcome
Publication of Professor Burton Pasternak's New Translated Works
- Source:客家文化發展中心
- Publication Date:2021/04/21
- Last updated:2022/02/17
- Count Views:855
In recent years, the Hakka Cultural Development Center has launched the project of translating Hakka research works by international scholars. The first special work on foreign language translation is Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages: newly attached with oral history of the author and current situation of the field investigation, which was published in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. A new book publishing meeting and symposium were held at the "Liudui Hakka Cultural Park - Liudui Conference Hall" on April 21 in which the recent video interview of American anthropologist Pf. Burton Pasternak (Professor Babot) was played. Researcher Hu Taili of the Institute of Ethnology shared her experiences of learning from Professor Burton, and researcher Huang Xuanwei, the editor in chief, guided the reading and talked with many Hakka research scholars to introduce this important translated foreign Hakka research to more readers. The atmosphere on-site was very lively.
This translation was completed by a research team led by researcher Huang Xuanwei, the chief editor, who translated the book Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages, a survey result of American anthropologist PF. Burton Pasternak in two Fujian Hakka villages in southern Taiwan in the 1960s. He also returned to the field mentioned in the book - Liudui (Zuodui) - for comparison of the current situation of the Datie village, Xinyu Township, Zhongshe village, Liujia District, and Tainan City. The researcher Derek Sheridan assisted the Institute of Ethnology in conducting an oral interview with the original author of the book, Professor Burton, in 2020 to review the context of the field survey in Taiwan. He then returned to the sites for investigation and collected precious interview records that were all presented to the readers of the book.
At the symposium on the publication of the new book, Pf. Burton Pasternak shared through the video that "this book is the first field survey of ethnography in my life.” From being a stranger to getting familiar with more than 250 families in the Datie village, he made the villagers there his mentor. The investigation and research time spent in the village was the most substantial and meaningful day of his life. In addition to the interactive communication between Professor Burton and the chief editor, researcher Huang Xuanwei, researcher Hu Taili and researcher Sheridan, Professor Zhuang Yingzhang (who has conducted comparative studies of two Fujian and Hakka villages in Northern Taiwan), Professor Hong Xinlan (who has had long-term exchanges with Professor Myron L. Cohen), and Hakka research experts and scholars such as Xu Zhengguang, Zhang Xiurong, Zhang Weian and Lin Zhenghui were also invited to carry out a diversified dialogue to expand the breadth and depth of comparative studies between the Fujian and Hakka. PF. Burton Pasternak and his classmate PF. Myron Cohen engaged in anthropological research in the Hakka area in southern Taiwan in the 1960s, both of who can be regarded as pioneers in the research of social and cultural anthropology of Han people in Taiwan and who have created precious records for research of the Hakka in Taiwan.
Director He said that since 2012, the Taiwan Hakka Culture Development Center has continuously promoted research on the theme of Hakka culture in Taiwan and other countries, actively promoted academic research exchanges and inter-library cooperation at home and abroad, and strengthened its function as a "Global Hakka Museum and materials research center". In order to make the special books used in relevant field exchanges or research widely read and promoted, in recent years, the translation and publication plan of Hakka research by overseas scholars has been launched. Because of this, foreign Hakka research works have been translated and introduced to more readers. The book, Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages: newly attached with oral history of the author and current situation of the field investigation, is the first foreign language translation book published by the Taiwan Hakka Culture Development Center. It will continue to translate and publish Hakka research by scholars such as Yoshio Watanabe of Japan in the hopes of expanding the academic exchange and application of Hakka research works between Taiwan and the world and to gradually achieve the task of enriching diversified research literature entrusted to the Hakka Culture Development Center.
