An Academic Biography of Liu Ching-Chih

A Man of "a Pure Heart"

Yongyan Li

• Publisher: Bridge 21 Publications
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781626430846
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

This book is an academic biography of Liu Ching-chih, a renowned musicologist and translation scholar, and a prolific music critic in Hong Kong. Three Library Collections named after him are housed in the University of Hong Kong Libraries, the Hong Kong Central Library, and the Library of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the University of Heidelberg. This volume of life writing is distinguished from average biographies by its reliance on systematic analyses of an extensive array of texts and interview data. The chapters integrate chronologies, narratives, analyses and intertextual connections, with the voice of Liu foregrounded, to present a multifaceted character whose decades-long scholarship spanned across music criticism, the history of new music in China, and translation. Several chapters document Liu's process of working on his major book projects, including A Critical History of New Music in China and A Critical History of Music in Hong Kong. One chapter portrays Liu as a scholar-music critic, and another features his leadership at the Hong Kong Translation Society. A chapter that documents Liu's immensely rich array of academic and cultural services in Hong Kong is followed by a linguistic and cultural profile of the scholar. The ending chapter, on the biography project itself, traces the evolution of the project, explains the research methodology, and provides a metadiscoursal account of the writing of the book. The book provides a valuable reference for those who want to know about humanities scholars, public intellectuals, music criticism, music research, and civic societies in Hong Kong, for those who are curious about the academic exchange between Hong Kong and mainland China during the 1980s-1990s, and for those who are interested in an interdisciplinary approach in life writing research and the genre of life writing concerning in particular scholars.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. From Moving to Hong Kong in 1948 to Earning PhD in 1983
• Chapter 2. Organising research seminars and publishing seminar monographs at the Centre of Asian Studies (CAS), University of Hong Kong
• Chapter 3. The Chinese Editions of A Critical History of New Music in China: Criticisms and Responses
• Chapter 4. The English Edition of A Critical History of New Music in China: Criticisms and Responses
• Chapter 5. The Three Library Collections Named after CC
• Chapter 6. CC Teaching in the Department of Music Education, Shanghai Conservatory of Music as a Visiting Professor
• Chapter 7. CC’s Project on A Critical History of Music in Hong Kong
• Chapter 8. CC as a Music Critic
• Chapter 9. CC as a Translation Scholar
• Chapter 10. CC’s Academic and Cultural Services
• Chapter 11. A Cultural and Linguistic Profile of CC, His Philosophy of Life, and His Reflections
• Chapter 12. This Book Project as a “Joint Project” with CC
• Epilogue
• Bm
• Notes
• References
• Appendices