The Foreign Service Journal, April 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2014 41 ary and Chinese Biographical Dictionary , won the Prix St. Julien Award from the French Academy. These books were testimonies to his lifelong endeavor of collecting data, writing, editing, and doing multiple revisions. At the time, Chinese studies was not a popular undertaking, and Sinologists were regarded as outcasts in both the general and academic community. Giles undertook these monumental projects almost singlehandedly, taking a huge risk by financing the publication of these books on his own. Endurance and Due Recognition Giles’ involvement with Chinese studies spanned more than half a century. He continued to publish prolifi- cally until he was 80 years old, when he summarized his life’s ambition as follows: “Throughout my life, from 1867 onwards, I have had two dominating ambitions: to contribute towards a more easy acquisition and a more correct knowledge of the Chinese language, written and spoken; and to arouse a wide and deeper interest in the literature, history, religions, art, philosophy, and manners and customs of the Chinese people.” A key aspect of his approach was targeting it to the general public in the West. His Chinese without a Teacher , a textbook intended to help the general public learn the language, remained popular for many years. In addition to receiving two honorary doctorates, one from the University of Aberdeen and the other fromOxford University, Giles was invited to inaugurate the Chinese lecture series for the establishment of Columbia University’s Chinese program in 1902. (Columbia later offered him a departmental chair, which he declined.) He also received a red umbrella from the Amoy Chinese Chamber of Commerce for his protection of emigrants from overcrowding in steamers. Giles received a special Er Deng Da Shou Jiahe (The Metal of 2nd-Grade Good Crop) award from the Chinese govern- ment in 1922. That same year, his accomplishments won him the Royal Asiatic Society’s triennial gold medal. Giles was also a leading member of the North China Royal Asiatic Society, mentoring other Westerners in their studies of Chinese language and culture. One of these was Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor, a commissioner in the Imperial Maritime Customs Services. Brewitt-Taylor counted Giles, along with Sir Robert Hart, the inspector general of the Imperial Maritime Customs Services in China, as among his few close friends. It was with Giles’ encouragement that Brewitt-Taylor twice painstakingly translated a classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms . (The first manuscript was lost in a fire during the Boxer Rebellion.) His rendering remains a classic translation to this day. Giles’ work in Chinese was so well regarded that Sun Yat- sen, the founder of the Republic of China, wrote him to express At the time, Chinese studies was not a popular undertaking, and Sinologists were regarded as outcasts in both the general and academic community. Courtesy of The Australian National University