Three scholars were honored by the ninth World Forum on China Studies which is running from October 18-19 in Shanghai.

The recipients of the Awards for Outstanding Contributions to China Studies include: Michael Loewe, academician of Clare College, University of Cambridge; Joseph W. Esherick, professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego; and Ye Jiaying, director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture of Nankai University.

As a British sinologist, historian and writer, Michael Loewe has published dozens of monographs and papers in the fields of ancient Chinese language and ancient Chinese history. As he said, it has been many years since he started to cooperate with Chinese scholars, through which process, he fully appreciates their contributions to the study of the history of Chinese civilization, and it is their contribution that has greatly expanded the research on this topic. Both Eastern and Western scholars benefited a lot from these contributions, according to Michael Loewe.

Having studied Chinese history with John King Fairbank at Harvard University in the United States, Joseph W. Esherick has devoted his life to the study of modern Chinese social history, with particular focus to the history of social movements. He has published many well-received books on the Revolution of 1911, the Boxer Movement and the Ye family, which have all been translated into Chinese.

As an expert on Chinese ancient poetry and a poet, Ye Jiaying has been teaching Chinese classical poetry for the past four decades. In 2016, she set up the “Jialing fund” in Nankai University with an aim to support the research of Chinese traditional culture.