Q: Why do people claim Hungarian sinology has something to do with the Hsiung-nu and the Huns?

A: Well, Hungary begins with the syllable Hun, and because Hungary is called Hsiung-ya-li in Chinese, many Chinese think we're descended from the Hsiung-nu. We used to think so ourselves too, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it's been scientifically proven that we've nothing to do with the Huns.

Until the nineteenth century, though, many people, distinguished intellectuals included, thought we were Huns. Hungarian historians came up with the idea we were descended from the Huns back in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Most of these theories came from the west, but our monarchs gladly accepted them.

Q: Gladly? Why?

A: Attila the Hun was so famous in Europe it was an honor to be his descendant!

For a long time linguists maintained we were related to the Turks, then later they said the structure of Hungarian differed from Turkish and belonged to the same family as Finnish. But many people were reluctant to accept this theory since the Finns were fishermen and we Hungarians were hunters, so how could we belong to one family?

Later still, some twentieth-century linguists wondered whether we Hungarians really did have links with the Orient. After all, the Chinese are a cultured people and wrote everything down, they kept histories in early times whereas we nomadic peoples did not. So why not go to China and see? Maybe the Yuan dynasty histories mention us, or perhaps there's some material on us somewhere in the 24 Histories. So we began to get interested in China.

This was how Hungarian sinology began. In due course the Eotvos Lorand University at Budapest set up its Oriental Studies Department, equivalent to a faculty. After World War Ⅱ and Hungary had established diplomatic relations with mainland China, the name was changed to the Department of Chinese and Oriental Studies, with the accent on Chinese studies.

Our sinological studies have of course shown more modest results than other countries over the past 50 years; Hungary is a small country with few sinologists, and our achievement cannot compare with those of the United States, France or Britain. Not that we've been idle, particularly in the field of translation, for all our translations in the past 30 years have been made from the original Chinese, not through third languages.

Mao Tse-tung and communist writings do feature, naturally, but we also translate a lot of literature. Hungarian translations are available of famous Chinese literary classics from the Classic of Poetry and The Analects down to well known novels of the late nineteenth century.

Q: When did you yourself begin studying Chinese?

A: Only after I went to Beijing. Hungary had established diplomatic relations with mainland China and signed a cultural exchange treaty which provided for students to do research in China. But in the immediate postwar period we had no research students in this field, so they just picked some recent university graduates. That's how it happened with me. My subject was German, not Chinese, but they chose me and persuaded me that it was all for the sake of national diplomacy, so I switched over.

Q: What first got you interested in studying Chinese literature of the Thirties?

A: When I first arrived in mainland China I attended classes at Tsinghua University, which ran a special language course for foreigners. There were ten students or so, all Europeans, from Holland, Portugal, Germany, Finland and so on.

First we studied two years of basic Chinese together, then went our different ways. Students of literature went to Beijing University, historians went to the People's University, and those interested in Chinese art went to the Academy of Art.

At first I chose classical literature, but with only two years of Chinese my grounding wasn't good enough; I should think even four years would barely be enough for ancient Chinese. So I decided to switch to modern literature, and I enjoyed Lu Hsun's writing so much that I thought of doing research on him.

But since I knew I might have a different job once I went back to Hungary, I decided to work through the 24 Histories. Now I'm teaching contemporary Chinese literature. Another colleague of mine teaches classical Chinese literature. I also have a lot of administrative work, so I don't have the energy for a complete study of Lu Hsun. I've only translated a few of his miscellaneous pieces.

I'd like to retranslate his novels one day. Most of the translations available in Hungary were published in the Fifties and were translated from the Russian or the English. They're full of mistakes and should be translated afresh.

A: Why do you like Lu Hsun in particular?

Q: Because Lu Hsun liked Hungary too. He was Hungary's first propagandist, for while he was in Japan he began introducing the Hungarian nationalist poet Sandor Petofi to the Chinese audience. We Hungarians are an isolated people in this part of Europe, a little island in a sea of Slavs, so we have always struggled for our independence. This was noted by members of the Chinese reform movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and K'ang Yu-wei both knew about Hungary. In their collected works they mentioned the Hungarians as being the only Oriental race that migrated to the west, and if they could stand up, as they have done for over 1,000 years, surely we Chinese should show a like resolution under imperialist pressure.

Q: Stirring stuff.

A: They were very interested in Hungary, K'ang Yu-wei came here twice.

Q: May I ask you to say a little more about your studies in Chinese literature? For instance, perhaps you first wanted to read Lu Hsun because he liked Hungary, but did your view of him change over time?

A: I heard Lu Hsun's name as soon as I reached Beijing, and began to be able to read his works in the last few months of our Chinese course. The first thing of his I read was his short story Hometown.

This made me recall my own hometown, his descriptive method isn't strange to us like the classical authors, and the Chinese he writes about are very much like our own people, so I felt very interested.

He has two attitudes towards short-story writing, one is satirical, distancing himself somewhat; the other is colloquial, romantic. I like both. Any people with a glorious history have a need for satirical literature because they think they're the tops and can't help boasting. We Hungarians are a bit that way. So we have a lot of satirical writing ourselves.

For me, Hometown seemed to be speaking about my own hometown. Another example is The True Story of Ah Q, in which he exposes China's backwardness, but also looks at intellectuals and how they should live, where their future lies, and that interests me too.

Q: Why?

A: I'm an intellectual myself, and in this society I and my fellow students think our knowledge is useless. All the decisions are made by officials, who aren't necessarily intellectuals.

Q: What kind of Chinese authors would be popular in Hungary?

A: We have very catholic tastes and are willing to read anything; we're interested in authors from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nowadays, anything goes! We used to go for any book we could get hold of, but now there are no obstacles.

Q: Are any Hungarian scholars beginning to study literature from Taiwan?

A: Not yet. There are only some English books which mention Taiwan authors.

Our biggest problem is a shortage of materials, and we often see books published it foreign languages. We've recently translated Nien Cheng's Life and Death in Shanghai, which I checked and which came out about six months ago.

Q: Turning to the Chinese department at Budapest University, how many students do you have there at the moment?

A: In the late Fifties and early Sixties we had around four or five. That was during the Cultural Revolution, and for the next ten years we had no contact with Communist China so numbers stayed at that level. Once the Cultural Revolution finished there was a general revival of interest in China and student numbers rose. In the Eighties numbers continued to increase, and recently have been holding steady at around 30. Since 1984 or 1985 we have had the chance to send two students a year to the mainland, to study in Beijing.

Ours is a five-year course, so we let them go to the mainland in the third or fourth year when they have some basis in Chinese. We hope all our students will be able to visit a Chinese-speaking area before they graduate, and at the moment that means mainland China.

The department is flourishing as never before. Some students learn Chinese without interruption from the first year to the last, and can read both modern and classical Chinese. Of course we focus mainly on modern literature, but we also stress the classical literature to some extent too.

Q: What kind of teaching materials do you use?

A: We've compiled our own modern Chinese readers. As for classical Chinese, we use a variety of selections for teaching.

Q: Selections from Classical Chinese?

A: Yes, it's a compilation made by a famous German sinologist. Recently a classical Chinese reader edited by Wang Li has been published in mainland China which offers a selection of writings from Confucius to nineteenth-century treatises, with grammatical explanations and notes. Our first and second year students all learn basic classical and modern Chinese. In the third year they begin reading classical literature or philosophical writings such as The Analects or Mencius. In the fourth and fifth years they read a selection from The Story of the Stone or the Ku-chin ch'i-kuan. Modern Chinese classes are divided between grammar and conversation from the second year. We have a Chinese teacher for the conversation classes. So by graduation our students can hold forth in simple Chinese.

Q: As more and more Taiwanese are traveling to Eastern Europe these days, do you think that will help promote Chinese language studies and sinology?

A: Of course it will. Travel agencies often call us to say they're expecting a tour group from Taiwan and can we help out.

And these days we're well placed to do so.

[Picture Caption]

The Hungarian Museum of Ethnology in Budapest has a valuable collection of archaeological materials on the Huns.

(Left) Venerable Budapest University has had a Chinese department for over 50 years.

(Right) A fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker, Professor Endre Galla is a Lu Hsun specialist.

Signs in Chinese are evident outside Professor Galla's office.

Hungarian sinologists have inevitably turned their attention to study of the Hsiung-nu.

The Hungarian Museum of Oriental Art produced this comparative chart of oriental and western artifacts for newcomers to Chinese studies.

This Chinese memorial archway was brought back to Budapest from Western China by the Hungarian collector Hopp Ferenc and now stands in the Hopp Ferenc Museum .

Although its collection is modest by European standards, the Hopp Ferenc Museum still attracts hordes of visitors on public holidays.

Chinese art, philosophy and literature hold a deep attraction for Hungarians with their dash of oriental blood.

（Right） A fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker, Professor Endre Galla is a Lu Hsun specialist.

Signs in Chinese are evident outside Professor Galla's office.

Hungarian sinologists have inevitably turned their attention to study of the Hsiung-nu.

The Hungarian Museum of Oriental Art produced this comparative chart of oriental and western artifacts for newcomers to Chinese studies.

This Chinese memorial archway was brought back to Budapest from Western China by the Hungarian collector Hopp Ferenc and now stands in the Hopp Ferenc Museum .

Although its collection is modest by European standards, the Hopp Ferenc Museum still attracts hordes of visitors on public holidays.

Chinese art, philosophy and literature hold a deep attraction for Hungarians with their dash of oriental blood.