Pierre Ryckmans

Pierre Ryckmans (born 28 September 1935, in Brussels, Belgium), who also uses the pen-name Simon Leys, is a writer, sinologist, essayist and literary critic.

He studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain), Chinese language, literature and art in Taiwan. He went to Hong Kong, before settling down in Australia in 1970. He taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University, where he supervised the honours thesis of current Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ruddref and later was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney, from 1987 to 1993.

Pierre Ryckmans wrote that he was requested to use a pseudonym before the publication of "Les habits neufs du président Mao" in 1971. He chose "Leys" after the main character of Victor Segalen's novel "René Leys" (published in 1922). ref|pseudonym

In 2004 he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.

Works

Ryckmans wrote a series of famous books about Chinese Cultural Revolution. He is also a translator of Chinese literature, such as the "Analects of Confucius", and "The Treatise on Painting" by Shi Tao. Pierre Ryckmans writes in French and English.

Bibliography

* Shitao's "Les propos sur la peinture du moine Citrouille-amère" (translation and comments, 1970)
* "La vie et l'oeuvre de Su Renshan, rebelle, peintre et fou" (1971).
* "Les habits neufs du président Mao" ("The Chairman's new clothes: Mao and the cultural revolution", 1971)
* "Ombres chinoises" ("Chinese Shadows", 1976)
* "Images brisées" (1976)
* "Human rights in China" (1979)
* "Broken Images" (1981)
* "Orwell, ou l'horreur de la politique" (1984)
* "La forêt en feu: Essais sur la culture et la politique chinoises" ("The burning forest: Essays on Chinese culture and politics") (1987)
* "La Mort de Napoléon" ("The Death of Napoleon", 1986)
* "L'humeur, l'honneur, l'horreur: Essais sur la culture et la politique chinoises" (1991)
* "Analects of Confucius" (translation, 1997)
* "Essais sur la Chine" (Laffont, 1998, coll. "Bouquins")
* "L'Ange et le Cachalot" (1998)
* "The Angel and the Octopus" (collected essays 1983-1998, published February 1999) ISBN 1-875989-44-7
* "Protée et autres essais" (2001, was awarded the 2001 Prix Renaudot de l'Essai)
* "Deux années sur le gaillard d'avant" (2002)
* "Les Naufragés du Batavia" ("The Wreck of the Batavia: A True Story", 2003, was awarded the Prix Guizot)
* "La mer dans la littérature française" (Plon, 2003)
* Lu Xun's "La mauvaise herbe" (French translation)
* Other People's Thoughts - Idiosyncratically compiled by Simon Leys for the amusement of idle readers (Black Inc.) (2007)

Movies

The 2001 movie "The Emperor's New Clothes", directed by Alan Taylor, was based on Leys' novel "The Death of Napoleon".

Notes

# Nicholas Stuart: "Kevin Rudd: An Unauthorised Political Biography", Scribe, 2007
# Simon Leys: "Victor Segalen, les tribulations d'un poète en Chine", in "Figaro Littéraire" February 3, 2005

External links

* [http://www.morningsun.org/stages/leys_humanrights.html Simon Leys: "The burning forest: "Human Rights in China"]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282768/combined IMDB entry for "The Emperor's New Clothes"]
* Warren, David, [http://davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?id=741 "How evil triumphs"] , Ottawa Citizen, June 10, 2007.
* [http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-Dec-1996/ryckmans.html Extract from the 1996 Boyer Lectures-Pierre Ryckmans]