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Barbara and Volodja's Trip to China

Barbara Partee and Volodja Borschev are back from two exciting weeks in China --- 9 lectures (Barbara 6, Volodja 3) (Zhejiang Univ., Yanshan Univ., Beijing Language and Culture Univ., Capital Normal Univ.), two bird-watching weekends (Chongming Island and Beidaihe), and neat touristy things (including West Lake, Peking Opera, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Great Wall).

Barbara received an Honorary Visiting Professorship at Beijing Lang. and Cult. University, one of several universities that have formal semantics -- our audiences were all lively, and all understood English quite ok (with handouts).

Barbara writes:

Two discoveries: (1) it’s possible to get a chopstick blister --- I already knew how to use chopsticks but had never used them three meals a day seven days a week before; (2) stone lions come in two sexes: as you face them, the male is on the right, with his right front paw on a globe (power), and the female is on the left, with her left front paw on a baby lion (fertility). One confirmation of what we’d already heard: the universities are many and growing, and students are becoming more and more interested in and up-to-date on --- and contributing to --- international theoretical linguistics.

Check out Barbara's extensive picture archive of the trip. Volodja is in the process of typing up his diary.

And continue reading this entry for a selection of shots.

(1) Barbara happy as a lark on a birdwatching lookout tower in Beidahe with two ornithologists.

Barbara happy as a lark

(2) The Hon.Vis. Prof. ceremony in Beijing

THe Hon Vis Prof ceremony in Bejing

(3) Students at Yanshan University with BHP after lecture

Students at Yanshan University

(4) At lunch at Capital Normal University in Beijing --- B and V and Buddha

B and V and Buddha

(5) A very good female stone lion at the Summer Palace; she’s not hurting her baby, it’s thriving.