Dr. Cyril Cannon
Public Success, Private Sorrow: the life and times of Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor (1857-1938)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Globus Wines @ 1933, 10 Sha Jing Lu (by Jiu Long Hotel, near Zhou Jia Zhui Lu/ Li Yang Lu)
Brewitt-Taylor achieved distinction as a Chinese scholar with his masterly translation, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the first of the major traditional Chinese novels to be fully translated into English. He first came to China in 1880 to teach mathematics, navigation and nautical astronomy at the Foochow Naval Dockyard School, but for most of his forty years in China, he worked for the Chinese Customs Service. He lived through a fascinating period of Chinese history – the beginnings of modernization in China, and the last years of the Qing dynasty and the early Republic. He was trapped in the British Legation during the Boxer turmoil, when the first complete draft of his translation was destroyed. He went on to occupy a number of senior positions in the Customs Service as Commissioner, Shanghai Postmaster, and first Director of the important Customs College. Nevertheless, his public success was marked by personal sorrow when his first wife died following childbirth and his second wife spent many years in mental asylums; two of his homes in China were destroyed, and in addition to the loss of several babies both his sons predeceased him. The lecture outlines his life, his public success and his personal sorrows from his humble beginnings to his final years.
Following 15 years in the printing industry Dr. Cyril Cannon did his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at the London School of Economics. He was founding Head of Department of Humanities and Social Studies at what is now South Bank University, London, before being appointed Deputy Director responsible for academic affairs at the forerunner to Plymouth University. He then worked in Hong Kong for nearly ten years helping to set up the precursor to City University as the member of senior management responsible for academic planning. Following retirement he was appointed Academic Consultant to Lingnan College, Hong Kong, on its path to university status.
Brewitt-Taylor was also an ordinary and life member of our predecessor, the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, for a record 53 years.
ENTRANCE: RMB 30 (RAS members) and RMB 80 (non-members)
To see the pictures of the event, please click here.