Professor Yang Xianyi was born in 1915 in Hebei, China. He is a citizen of the People's Republic of China and is a widely acknowledged academic and writer who has travelled extensively. He received an individual scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra, together with his wife Mrs Gladys Yang. The couple had more or less parallel academic careers starting at Oxford University, where Professor Yang was a student at Merton College from 1936 to 1940 and gained an Hon Mods MA in English Literature. His wife was a scholar at St Anne's and the first woman BA Hons in Chinese.
On returning to China in 1940, Professor Yang was Professor of English at the National Central University and other institutions. From 1943 to 1949 he was a member of the National Bureau of Compilation and Translation and from 1950 to 1952 the Vice-Secretary-General of the Nanjing People's Political Consultative Conference.
From 1953 to 1986, Professor Yang was a member of the Foreign Languages Bureau and chief editor and advisor to the Chinese Literature quarterly, except for the years between 1968 to 1972 when he and his wife were on leave as prisoners at Beijing's First Model Prison.
From the early 1980s to the present, the Yangs have been guests at various overseas academic institutions. He was a guest of the University of Hong Kong at a seminar on China in 1986, and was made an honorary fellow of the Hong Kong Translators' Association. Among many academic positions he holds is as a member of the Institute of World Literature.
Alone and with his wife, Professor Yang has published more than 20 books - both literature and history - of translation from Chinese into English and from English and other European languages into Chinese. His own original writings in Chinese include collections of articles on history and literature, in addition to poems.
In recognition of his contributions in literature and history, the University has resolved to confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa.
