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china news service, sao paulo, september 7th, title: "tropical china" in the eyes of brazilian scholar hardman

china news service reporter lin chunyin

after six trips to china, francisco ford hardman, a 72-year-old senior professor at the institute of languages ​​of the state university of campinas in brazil, published a collection of his travel diaries. the chinese-portuguese bilingual version is named "china diary: the real china in the eyes of a brazilian", and the portuguese version is named "my tropical china: travel diary".

recently, the launch ceremony of "my tropical china: travel diary" was held in a brazilian cinema. at the book launch ceremony, hardman invited his good friend cecilia melo to play the documentary "singing life" shot in beijing, and use "text" and "image" to have a dialogue on "impressions of china".

from august 2019 to august 2020, hardman was invited to be a visiting professor of portuguese at the school of foreign languages ​​of peking university. min xuefei, a peking university scholar who invited hardman to china and promoted the publication of the book, told reporters that cambridge university was also inviting hardman to visit the uk at that time. for the professor who was about to retire, this might be his last chance to be a visiting professor. she was not confident at the time whether hardman would come to china.

hardeman chose china very happily. min xuefei said that it was not because peking university offered better conditions, but because "hardeman knew that we needed him more, and internationalism and solidarity have always been his life principles."

hardman recalled that his first visit to china was in 2013 when he visited beijing after attending an academic conference in macau. since then, he has visited china several times, and has seen the seagulls on dianchi lake, the ferries in jilin, the ancient stone mills in shantou... china's ecology, richness, vitality and humor are all left in these subtle places.

he also recounted the interesting stories of the waiters and campus security guards in the peking university cafeteria, the bustling vegetable market, and the beihai park illuminated by the morning sun. he diligently explored the "secrets" of the chinese lifestyle and was impressed by the resilience and optimism of the chinese people.

when talking about "impressions of china", hardman started with the title of the book, which comes from the brazilian thinker gilberto freire's saying that brazil can be described as "tropical china".

in hardman's view, freire, who was born in the 1950s, compared brazil and china even though he had never visited china. when freire mentioned "tropical china", perhaps he was aware of the "cross-cultural affinity" between the two countries, and perhaps he also had a kind of "utopian" imagination of "china" today, more than 60 years later.

after six visits to china, hardman has "established a belief in the existence of a real 'tropical china'." "this is my 'tropical china'," he said.

hardman, a well-known brazilian scholar and thinker, said that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between brazil and china. although the two countries are far apart, he believes in the power of literature and that the joys, sorrows, anger and happiness shared by the people of the two countries can arouse resonance and eliminate prejudices and gaps.

"rather than separating us, these cultural differences enrich our understanding of the human experience." a book review said that hardman's "tropical china" presents a "moving mural of the chinese soul."

"it provides a possible perspective, ideological resources and reading path for chinese people to understand brazil." min xuefei said in an interview that if there is an opportunity in the future, he will continue to translate the many works of "tropical china" thinkers mentioned by hardman in class and in books into chinese, "to narrow the cultural distance between china and brazil."

hardman printed the farewell poem written for him by his good friend, the late chinese poet hu xudong, on the title page. he also mentioned cecilia's documentary "singing life", in which two foreign singers sang "night in ulaanbaatar" in a common dialect.

he said that this is like the brotherhood between brazil and china, "right there, far away in the horizon, yet right in front of us."