Helmut Martin (5 May 1940 in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, Germany – 8 June 1999) was a German

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 ...

best known for his work on modern Chinese literature.

Biography

Martin studied Sinology and Slavic Studies in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. He earned his doctorate with in 1966, on the subject of Li Yu's dramaturgy. He then won a post-doctoral scholarship and went

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

, where, among other things, he edited a 15-volume complete works of Li Yu's works, which was published in 1970. After a short stay in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, he returned to Germany in the early 1970s, and was initially a China officer at the Institute for Asian Studies in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. In 1997 he did his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

with

Wolfgang Franke Wolfgang Leopold Friedrich Franke (; 24 July 1912 – 6 September 2007) was a German sinologist whose research was focused on the history of the Ming dynasty and of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. He served as Chair of Sinology at the U ...

, with the work “Chinese language planning”. He started the journal '' China Aktuell'', and in 1977, with his wife, published a Chinese-English dictionary of politics and economy in the People's Republic of China (Langenscheidt-Wörterbuch ''Chinesisch-deutscher Wortschatz. Politik und Wirtschaft der VR China''). From 1979 he was Professor, and Chair of Chinese Language and Literature at

Ruhr-Universität Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

, and a visiting professor in East Asia and the USA. The State Language Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesspracheninstitut Nordrhein-Westfalen) and the founding in 1993 of the Richard Wilhelm Translation Center (Richard-Wilhelm-Übersetzungszentrum) at Ruhr University, one of three translation centers for Chinese literature worldwide, were also his initiative. From 1990 Martin was involved in the German Association for Chinese Studies (DVCS) and was its chair from 1995 until the time of his death.DVCS circular 2/1999 with detailed obituary for Helmut Martin , url = http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/oaw/dvcs/rundbriefe1999.html Since 1974, when he translated and published previously unpublished works of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

, Martin had a tense relationship with the PR China. He was barred from entering the PRC because of his criticism of the Chinese leadership, his sympathy for Chinese writers and intellectuals and his views on the violent ending of the Tian’anmen protests in 1989. He took his own life on 8 June 1999, aged 59, and is buried in the Melaten-Friedhof, Cologne.

Publications

Martin published hundreds of articles on China and Chinese literature and was also the editor of several publications about China. *

Biography

Publications

References

Further reading