In Memory of Antoinet Schimmelpenninck (1962–2012)

CHINOPERL Papers No. 31 (2012)©2012 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature IN MEMORY OF ANTOINET SCHIMMELPENNINCK (1962–2012) Photo by Frank Kouwenhoven A researcher of Chinese folk songs and co-founder of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME), Dr. Antoinet Schimmelpenninck died on April 15, 2012 at the age of 49. In her life and work, she strove to honor and live up to a one-line poem by Rabindranath Tagore that was quoted on her birth announcement card: “Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.” CHINOPERL Papers No. 31 274 I met Antoinet for the first time in Paris during the ninth European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) Congress in 1992. Our presentations had ended up as part of the same panel. Her talk about folk songs in the Wu 吳 area, illustrated by audio clips and visuals presented by her husband and fellow researcher, Frank Kouwenhoven, was the best paper I heard during the conference. Her intense dedication to the singers and their tradition was paired with the scientific spirit of a true scholar. Her material was amazing, too: the vocal qualities of the recorded performances took me by surprise—this was worlds apart from the kinds of Chinese music I had hitherto experienced. In those days, the audio and visual illustration of paper presentations was still mostly very clumsy, and the necessary equipment more often than not obstinately refused to work. But that was definitely not the case here. Their excellent performance was actually an example of how Antoinet and Frank had grown together, not only as a married couple, but also as a pair of fellow researchers. This style of working characterized their research and other scholarly activities. After the panel, Antoinet and I quickly became friends. She and Frank brought copies of CHIME Journal to the conference, but when I expressed a desire to buy one, Antoinet’s eyes became faintly red—the journal and CHIME in general had only met with a rather cold reception at the conference and I was apparently the only one to react so positively. After this, we met at workshops and conferences whenever there was a chance, and later I had the good fortune to visit the CHIME Foundation in Leiden and participate in several CHIME conferences. That initial frosty reception of CHIME and its journal did not last long. Although neither the organization nor the journal had been created out of thin air, they were absolutely not founded according to any hierarchic or traditional precedents. Both were totally based on the couple’s idealistic efforts as supported by friends and colleagues who were dedicated to Chinese music and oral performance. It was a ‘grass-roots’ academic organization from the beginning and has stayed so. From CHIME’s website (http://home.planet.nl/~chime/) it is easy to trace how the foundation grew into one of the most lively and active arenas for sinology in Europe. Needless to say, the work of maintaining this organization and the journal was time-consuming. I recently saw a list of all the Chinese performing artists and musicians that Antoinet and Frank had invited to Europe, both for their own CHIME conferences and for many, many other organisations and institutions. The total number of visiting artists and events was mind-boggling. BØRDAHL, In Memory of Antoinet Schimmelpenninck 275 For readers of CHINOPERL Papers, Antoinet Schimmelpenninck’s most important contribution is her Chinese Folk Songs and Folk Singers, Shange Traditions in Southern Jiangsu of 1997,1 based on her doctoral thesis.2 A study of the “mountain songs” (shan’ge 山歌) of the Wu dialect area in Southern Jiangsu, this book was a pioneering work and has retained its importance in the field of the study of folklore, folk music, and epic poetry in China. Antoinet and Frank conducted the fieldwork for the study together and their mutual support and intellectual synergy are foundational to it, but the book in its final form carries the clear imprint of the author listed on its title page, Antoinet. The book treats the singers, their texts, and their music, and includes a wealth of information...