In Appreciation of Cyril Birch

IN APPRECIATION OF CYRIL BIRCH Victoria Cass Public humiliation can make powerful memories. One such powerful memory was created in a seminar I took with Professor Birch on the novel Hong lou nleng. I have no idea how I got this idea, but in class one day I asked Professor Birch if the description of a chess game between two nuns was, in fact, a lesbian encounter. With unmasked delight he responded with the suggestion that we look at the passage in question-to explicate the language of the encounter, to see if, indeed, there were hidden meanings of a naughty variety. I have often recalled this ridiculous question I asked because it seems to summarize what I remember of Professor Birch-which is that I trusted him. There were many reasons for this trust. There was certainly the knowledge that he would go to the text, and look at the language, examine carefully the nuance of expressions, the etymology of the words or the tone of a passage, that he would draw conclusions carefully based upon what the text actually conveyed. But I think that what I also trusted in-as we all did who worked with him in seminars or on our dissertations-was his fine and generous manner, his willingness to take a question seriously, his capacity to listen and consider and respond. We all knew and acknowledged, in both his teaching and advising, his wonderful and absolute decency. Robert Chard What lowe to Cyril Birch goes back a very long way, to the time I was an undergraduate at DC Berkeley in the 1970s. Even at that level his courses in Chinese language and literature were a memorable experience; they lie at the heart of what little I know about vernacular and modern Chinese literature. Though I did no further work with him as a graduate student, he continued to take an interest in what I was doing, and we had many congenial conversations over the years. Now at last I have something which owes a great deal to what I learned from him long ago, and it gives me great pleasure to dedicate it to him. ClllNOPERL Papers No. 20-22 (1997-99)© 1999 by the Conference on Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. ClllNOPERL Papers No. 20-22 Sam Cheung Flowers of peach and pear come to bloom under the caress of the spring breeze. We sing songs and tell stories in the sheltering shade of the silver birch. Jeannette L. Faurot My graduate school years at Berkeley extended from 1964 to 1971, a time of student movements on campus and incipient revolutionary change in the Oriental Languages department. One of my most enduring memories of Mr. Birch (the department did not use the title "Professor" to address faculty members back then) is that he brought a voice of sanity and a calming presence to the department during the chaotic period of the late '60s. While other faculty members stayed aloof from the fray, Mr. Birch arranged opportunities for discussion and debate, and was always available in his office to listen to student concerns. He was the main source of stability and strength in our department during this period. He also played a revolutionary role in transforming the Chinese program from one which concentrated only on ancient and medieval China to one which could train scholars in modem fiction and drama. I believe I was his first Ph.D. student. Originally I had wanted to write my dissertation on realism in May 4th fiction, but at that time the majority of the Chinese faculty were reluctant to approve a dissertation topic in the modem (defined as post-Tang) period. Mr. Birch managed to persuade his colleagues to accept a compromise, and I wrote on a Ming dynasty dramatist who wrote in guwen. At the same time Mr. Birch was directing Lucien Miller's work on Honglou meng, though in the Comparative Literature program, not in Oriental Languages. In any case, he effectively broke the department's Tang-Song time barrier and paved the way for new generations of students to study vernacular fiction and drama at Berkeley. WeiHua Thank you, Professor Birch, for leading me...