Cecilia Lindqvist (Chinese name: Lin Xili 林西莉; 4 June 1932 – 28 September 2021) was a Swedish

Sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

. She was a professor and author of several books on China.

Biography

Cecilia Norman was born in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

in 1932. She was interested in China because it had such a long history. She first visited the country when she was 28 with letters of recommendation including one from the King of Sweden. She went to see all the porcelain and paintings she had read about and to study the country. She also learnt to play the stringed instrument called the ''

guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...

''. She ate the same diet as her hosts which was low in protein. Lindvqist became ill and she lost her hair but continued to study. She was married to

Sven Lindqvist Sven Oskar Lindqvist (28 March 1932 – 14 May 2019) was a prolific Swedish author whose 35 books range from essays, aphorisms, autobiography, and documentary prose to travel and reportage. He was educated at Stockholm University, and spent a ye ...

from 1956 to 1986. They wrote books on China together that were published in 1964, 1979 and 1980. In 1970 she was working as a teacher when they asked if anyone could teach Chinese. Lindqvist rose to the challenge and taught 18 students successfully for the first year. in 1974 she started to write the book ''Kingdom of Characters'' which was not complete until 1989. She won the ''

August Prize The August Prize () is an annual Swedish literary prize awarded each year since 1989 by the Swedish Publishers' Association. The prize is awarded to the best Swedish book of the year, in three categories. The Swedish Publishers' Association also ...

'' for that book and she is one of the few authors to have been given that award twice. In 1991 she wrote a book entitled ''China: Empire of Living Symbols'' which traces how Chinese characters used today can be traced back to

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

markings made on bone. Her 2006 book entitled '' Qin'' is about the seven-stringed zither that Lindqvist had first seen in China in 1961. She died on 27 September 2021.

Works

* ''China from the Inside'' (with

) (1963) * ''Asian Experience'' (with

) (1964) * ''Traveling with Aaron'' (1969) * ''What Would Mao Say?'' (with

) (1979) * ''China'' (with

) (1980) * ''Characters Kingdom'' (Bonnier, 1989). * ''China: Empire of Living Symbols'' (1991) * ''Qin'' (Albert Bonnier, 2006).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindqvist, Cecilia 1932 births 2021 deaths Swedish sinologists People from Lund August Prize winners