Duncan James Poupard
Biographic Data
| ID | 3811013 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Duncan James Poupard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Duncan James |
| FAMILY NAME | Poupard |
| SIGNATURE | POUPARD D J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5974-1813 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
On bats, borrowings, and beginnings
While stories and myths are common in all societies, the development of what may be termed a “literature” is a much rarer occurrence. Most spoken languages do not even possess a script, and the appearance of writing, of visible language, does not itself mark the advent of a literature. How then does literature come about? This paper attempts to answer this far-reaching question by looking at a small Tibeto-Burman minority group in southwest China…
Synopsis
“Rock’s Land and Goullart’s”
Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage site, Lijiang in China’s mountainous southwest is not a renowned city in world history, yet there is no doubt that, after reading the works of Joseph Rock (1884–1962) and Peter Goullart (1901–1978), Ezra Pound perceived it as befitting such a status. Lijiang in Pound’s Cantos becomes both an ideal construct of the poetic mind and a real, achievable paradiso terrestre . In this glorified hieratic landscape, Po…
Attention is all low-resource languages need
The question of what it might mean “to take Indigenous languages seriously” has never been more pressing. It is true that minority, Indigenous or otherwise low-resource languages have been almost “
Introduction
This introductory article to the volume deals with the historical development of an international Naxi Studies, and offers a review of the current situation of the discipline. Naxiology (the composition, provenance, and translation of Naxi manuscripts) is presented as a sub-discipline of Naxi Studies, and some recent landmark publications are introduced, alongside a discussion of the long-standing issue of Romanising the Naxi language. The interd…
“Strike with the magic dagger!” A Naxi phur ba manuscript and the Dunhuang connection
This article presents preliminary readings from an unusual Naxi manuscript in the Leiden University Libraries Naxi Dongba manuscripts collection, OR. 26.042. This manuscript is indecipherable (likely recording a Tibetan dharani), except for three sections at the beginning, middle, and end, translations of which are presented here. I propose that is the only extant Naxi manuscript to record a full phur ba (magic dagger) rite, and as such is of spe…
Sinoxenic writing and Chinese minority literature
Drawing on examples from a range of ethnic minority literatures across south China (Achang, Hani, Bai, and Naxi), this article attempts to show how the writing of minority languages in contemporary Chinese literature may have evolved from the old Sinoxenic writing (writing that uses a borrowed and/or modified Chinese character script) of manuscript sources. I argue that all of China’s minority authors engage in Sinoxenic writing (albeit in limite…
Travelling Back via Translation
Tibetan author Alai’s Chinese essay, Yi di shui jingguo Lijiang (一滴水经过丽江 [A drop of water passes through Lijiang]) is a piece of travel writing that describes the city of Lijiang (home to the Naxi minority of Yunnan province) and its environs from the perspective of an anthropomorphic drop of water. The essay has been subsequently translated back into the minority Naxi language of Lijiang by Naxi scholar Mu Chen, and both versions are presented a…
Writings on the wall
This article investigates public textual inscriptions in China’s Naxi minority region and the role they play in projecting power. Cliff inscriptions in Chinese minority areas may be an attempt to enforce the hegemonic project of the “civilizing centre,” which sees Han culture as a civilizing force on the “barbarians” that live in China’s border provinces. Despite the nominal equality of China’s ethnic minority groups, the language and writing sys…
Revitalising Naxi dongba as a ‘pictographic’ vernacular script
A script can be a window into a language and all the culture contained within it. China’s minority peoples have a multitude of scripts, but many are in danger of falling out of use, a decline spurred by the adoption and promotion of standard Chinese across the country. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to preserve minority writing systems. This article reveals how the primarily logographic Naxi dongba script (often labelled the world’s ‘last l…
Translation as hybridity in Sinophone Bai writing
How can minority writers within China assert their own ethnolinguistic distinctiveness whilst also writing in Chinese? Ethnic minority works fall into two groups: writing in standard Chinese, and works in native scripts. Most ethnic minority writing that can go beyond the local level to connect with a national or even global audience is published in Chinese – hence the label ‘Sinophone’ writing. The Bai people are one such minority nationality wi…
How the Turtle Lost its Shell
This article is a pan-Himalayan story about how the turtle, as a cultural symbol within Sino-Tibetan divination iconography, came to more closely resemble a frog. It attempts a comparative analysis of Sino-Tibetan divination manuals, from Tibetan Dunhuang and Sinitic turtle divination to frog divination among the Naxi people of southwest China. It is claimed that divination turtles, upon entering the Himalayan foothills, are not just turtles, but…
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How the Turtle Lost its Shell
This article is a pan-Himalayan story about how the turtle, as a cultural symbol within Sino-Tibetan divination iconography, came to more closely resemble a frog. It attempts a comparative analysis of Sino-Tibetan divination manuals, from Tibetan Dunhuang and Sinitic turtle divination to frog divination among the Naxi people of southwest China. It is claimed that divination turtles, upon entering the Himalayan foothills, are not just turtles, but…
Revitalising Naxi dongba as a ‘pictographic’ vernacular script
A script can be a window into a language and all the culture contained within it. China’s minority peoples have a multitude of scripts, but many are in danger of falling out of use, a decline spurred by the adoption and promotion of standard Chinese across the country. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to preserve minority writing systems. This article reveals how the primarily logographic Naxi dongba script (often labelled the world’s ‘last l…
Translation as hybridity in Sinophone Bai writing
How can minority writers within China assert their own ethnolinguistic distinctiveness whilst also writing in Chinese? Ethnic minority works fall into two groups: writing in standard Chinese, and works in native scripts. Most ethnic minority writing that can go beyond the local level to connect with a national or even global audience is published in Chinese – hence the label ‘Sinophone’ writing. The Bai people are one such minority nationality wi…
Travelling Back via Translation
Tibetan author Alai’s Chinese essay, Yi di shui jingguo Lijiang (一滴水经过丽江 [A drop of water passes through Lijiang]) is a piece of travel writing that describes the city of Lijiang (home to the Naxi minority of Yunnan province) and its environs from the perspective of an anthropomorphic drop of water. The essay has been subsequently translated back into the minority Naxi language of Lijiang by Naxi scholar Mu Chen, and both versions are presented a…
Writings on the wall
This article investigates public textual inscriptions in China’s Naxi minority region and the role they play in projecting power. Cliff inscriptions in Chinese minority areas may be an attempt to enforce the hegemonic project of the “civilizing centre,” which sees Han culture as a civilizing force on the “barbarians” that live in China’s border provinces. Despite the nominal equality of China’s ethnic minority groups, the language and writing sys…
Sinoxenic writing and Chinese minority literature
Drawing on examples from a range of ethnic minority literatures across south China (Achang, Hani, Bai, and Naxi), this article attempts to show how the writing of minority languages in contemporary Chinese literature may have evolved from the old Sinoxenic writing (writing that uses a borrowed and/or modified Chinese character script) of manuscript sources. I argue that all of China’s minority authors engage in Sinoxenic writing (albeit in limite…
“Rock’s Land and Goullart’s”
Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage site, Lijiang in China’s mountainous southwest is not a renowned city in world history, yet there is no doubt that, after reading the works of Joseph Rock (1884–1962) and Peter Goullart (1901–1978), Ezra Pound perceived it as befitting such a status. Lijiang in Pound’s Cantos becomes both an ideal construct of the poetic mind and a real, achievable paradiso terrestre . In this glorified hieratic landscape, Po…
Attention is all low-resource languages need
The question of what it might mean “to take Indigenous languages seriously” has never been more pressing. It is true that minority, Indigenous or otherwise low-resource languages have been almost “
Introduction
This introductory article to the volume deals with the historical development of an international Naxi Studies, and offers a review of the current situation of the discipline. Naxiology (the composition, provenance, and translation of Naxi manuscripts) is presented as a sub-discipline of Naxi Studies, and some recent landmark publications are introduced, alongside a discussion of the long-standing issue of Romanising the Naxi language. The interd…
“Strike with the magic dagger!” A Naxi phur ba manuscript and the Dunhuang connection
This article presents preliminary readings from an unusual Naxi manuscript in the Leiden University Libraries Naxi Dongba manuscripts collection, OR. 26.042. This manuscript is indecipherable (likely recording a Tibetan dharani), except for three sections at the beginning, middle, and end, translations of which are presented here. I propose that is the only extant Naxi manuscript to record a full phur ba (magic dagger) rite, and as such is of spe…
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
On bats, borrowings, and beginnings
While stories and myths are common in all societies, the development of what may be termed a “literature” is a much rarer occurrence. Most spoken languages do not even possess a script, and the appearance of writing, of visible language, does not itself mark the advent of a literature. How then does literature come about? This paper attempts to answer this far-reaching question by looking at a small Tibeto-Burman minority group in southwest China…
Synopsis
History (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations (6 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (5 works) · Naxi (5 works) · Biology (4 works) · China (4 works) · Political science (4 works)