台灣大學政治學系中國大陸暨兩岸關係教學與研究中心 「中國學的知識社群」計畫 MEMORY OF BRAZILIAN SYNOLOGY 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 Interview Schedule What follows now is the script of our interviews carried out in Brazil, seeking to gather experiences, impressions and opinions about Sinology in Brazil and its participation in this field. This structure was adapted from the oral interview script – a modality that unfortunately we could not perform at that time for health and logistical reasons, among other reasons. We seek an overview of the personal and educational trajectory; next, what led to the study of China, and from what aspect; finally, some of the academic and personal opinions about Sinology in Brazil and its future. It was not necessary to answer all the questions, but if possible, to form a scenario of the personal trajectory, academic performance and vision of Sinology . We allow for less formal language, telling personal stories and expressing opinions. There was no set size for each answer, you could use as much space as you want. Note: Professor Chiu, one of the greatest Brazilian scholars in Chinese philosophy, wrote a memorial text for this interview, based on the questions presented. André Bueno Prof. adj. Eastern History UERJ/Brazil Coord. Project Orientalism My name is Chiu Yi Chih. I was born on January 24, 1982 in Taipei City in Taiwan. I didn't spend much time in Taiwan in my early childhood, as my family (my father, mother and I) soon moved to China, Macau, Hong Kong, which we passed quickly. We arrived in Brazil when I was ve years old. My younger brother was born in Brazil. When I entered the rst grade, I still didn't know how to speak Portuguese and I didn't even write in the language. I had private lessons with a Portuguese teacher and later with a Portuguese teacher Irael Luziano who was very dedicated to teaching me. Over time, I learned to relate to my peers, although in the rst and second years I had some psychological and linguistic estrangements in relation to the school environment. Since then, my parents started to get familiar with Brazilians, but still with many di culties due to di erences in customs and, above all, the lack of ability in the Portuguese language. However, as I was very young and there were adequate conditions, I quickly became familiar with the school, my classmates and the Portuguese language. After being well literate, from the age of 12, I started to read some books on romance, poetry and philosophy. I remember reading “Sophie's World” which started 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 me in philosophy, and then I started reading dialogues by Plato, Nietzsche, Spinoza and a lot of poetry. I remember that at the age of 13 I already wrote my rst essays and poems where I wrote down my thoughts, my ideas and impressions about life. Small philosophical and poetic re ections. It was at this time that the classics “Bhagavad Gita” and “Dao De Jing” by Laozi, Rimbaud, Fernando Pessoa came into my hands. It is evident that as a teenager I did not deepen my reading of Dao De Jing and his Taoist philosophy. Furthermore, the music of Raul Seixas and Caetano Veloso had a considerable in uence on my early acculturation years. As I was very curious and versatile, I was able to meet other people. My meeting with the poets Roberto Piva and Claudio Willer at the age of 14 led me to di erent readings and experiences. Just to name a few, I went to Teatro O cina to watch the plays “As Bacantes” by Zé Celso with Roberto Piva and some of his young friends like Gustavo Benini. We used to go out discussing, philosophizing and reading poetry. A great learning! With them we also performed a shamanic ritual in the mountains of Mariporã. These experiences and many others accompanied by the readings of Mircea Eliade, Jung, Artaud, Lautréamont, Baudelaire, and many other authors that for me were emblematic and essential, ended up awakening my sensitivity more. Piva had the habit of recommending wonderful authors and books to open up our horizons. At that time, I started going through interesting experiences such as meditating and chanting mantras at the Hare Krishna temple, meditating at the Busshinji zazen temple which is still in the Liberdade neighborhood. I would like to meditate, visit and visit some Chinese Buddhist temples. In my parents I never noticed any feelings of devotion in the area of Buddhism or Taoism, nor any intellectual interest. My family never developed an interest in spirituality, art and the path of knowledge. In that sense, they were quite pragmatic and materialistic. They came to assimilate some Christian teachings, but only formally, and in relation to Buddhism and Taoism, they never deepened philosophically or in practical experience. Re ecting on my personal history, there was a time when my parents didn't even want me to read philosophy or poetry, let alone frequent the circle of poets or Buddhist temples because that would certainly stray me o their programmed path. They wanted me to be an engineer or a doctor to ensure nancial survival. So, they 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 never supported me morally when I went to temples or studied a philosophy book. On the contrary, they even vehemently opposed it. As I grew older, I realized that I was not only di erent from my parents, but di erent from all my high school and high school classmates. In between classes, he was alone reading in the library. While I was in high school, I had many experiences of meditation in temples of Hare Krsna, Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan and also in evangelical churches. In addition, he did many literature workshops. This passion for literature and philosophy was evident when I started to graduate in Classical Letters (Greek-Portuguese) at USP, where I had the privilege of learning to read in classical Greek the texts of Plato, Epicurus and Aristotle and of learning to read in English. , Spanish and French. But my rst radical experience was my ayahuasca experience at Santo Daime when I was studying at USP. I think that in those years of college, I was able to assimilate the method of reading, interpretation and analysis based on knowledge of the texts. I read classics of literature such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Flaubert, Proust, Camus, etc. as well as classics of philosophy such as Aristotle, Hegel, Kant, Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, Sartre, Spinoza, Deleuze, Hume, etc. So, combining this universal knowledge with these deep experiences and other parallel readings, I always realized how much knowledge is a dynamic, living and immersive process in the sense of involving our life as a whole, instead of a mere accumulation of theoretical knowledge. I did my scienti c initiation under the guidance of Marco Zingano with a CNPQ grant and a master's degree with Roberto Bolzani with a grant from FAPESP. Both Zingano and Bolzani were quali ed teachers in the reading, commentary, interpretive analysis of classical Greek texts. I attended a translation study group at Unicamp coordinated by Marco Zingano and then another group of researchers coordinated by Bolzani. Both participations, in addition to my lectures in colloquiums, congresses and seminars, approaching not only the philosophy of happiness in Aristotle (my master's degree) but also the thinking of Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze contributed signi cantly to my formation. It is evident that in the midst of these experiences I felt the need to get involved with art, and even during my graduation, I participated in several workshops on poetry, dramaturgy, until when I nished my master's degree in philosophy in 2009, I got involved with dance- theater by Taanteatro, a company that still operates today under the coordination of butoh 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 pioneer Maura Baiocchi and Wolfgang Pannek. During this period, I performed on the streets and also on stages. In this alchemical mixture, he attended soirees in the city of São Paulo, both the soirees on the periphery and the conventional soirees. In all of them I experimented with bodily performance, the reading of the poem, crisscrossing the languages of poetry, philosophy, music and the visual arts, until I created the concept of Metacorporeity in 2016 when I wrote a poem in prose to be read in performance. In 2016, Editora Córrego published my second book “Metacorporeidade” (a set of philosophical essays, poems with sculpture and performance images) with a preface by Claudio Willer. I really like this book, because it already has a more mature diction. He already had a book of poetry “Naufrágios” published by Editora Multifoco in 2011 with a preface also by Willer. When I wrote this rst book in 2010, Roberto Piva, who had read my notebooks, wanted to write a preface poem, but unfortunately he died even before I found a publisher. In Brazil, there are many di culties in publishing poetry, especially if the person is a beginner, as was my case. But my poetry, performance and philosophy (including my courses in Taoism) were little by little recognized by Piva and Willer, as well as some rare poets like Marcelo Ariel, Claudio Daniel, Luis Serguilha and teachers like Mauricio Salles Vasconcelos and Antonio Vicente Pietroforte ( the latter from the Department of Letters) to name a few. During my adolescence and later during my university phase, I had never returned to my homeland. However, even though I studied Chinese here in Brazil, my Chinese was still very weak. When I entered the rst year of Letters at USP, I decided to stop studying Mandarin, because I thought I had to have more time to dedicate myself to college studies. However, the resumption of Chinese studies only took place with an extremely curious and mysterious experience. One day I passed a Chinese bookstore and came across the book “Dao De Jing” by Laozi in a bilingual edition. Looking at the Chinese characters again, I was amazed. It was a re-enchantment! At that time I was working as an interpreter, but I still had to improve my knowledge of the language a lot in terms of reading and writing. Since then he could only speak and translate the simplest conversational dialogues. So I set myself the goal of studying the Dao De Jing intensively in ve years through immersion in every chapter. I copied all the words into my notebook, and little by 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 little, in an absolutely self-taught way, I learned to read the ancient Chinese of Laozi. I had dreams related to the matter. I remember that in one of the dreams, I was singing and reciting in Chinese some sacred text in a large factory workshop, and a woman appeared who turned into a bird, which in turn ew through space and then disappeared. Then, the next day, I receive an email inviting me to translate Dao De Jing by Editora Edipro. Premonitory! So I began to want to read a whole book in Chinese. I started by reading the modern commentator Chen Gu Ying who translated and commented on the entire Dao De Jing. For me, the goal was to acquire the skill of instrumental reading. At rst, it was di cult, but as I had knowledge of basic grammar, with dedication, love and commitment, I was able to overcome it and in a year I nished reading this book. For me it was a victory because it was my rst Chinese book that I was able to read. This helped me to understand classical Taoism and I still use this and other books in my Taoism classes today. The journey was just beginning. Then I read other commentators like Wang Bang Xiong (National Taiwan Normal University) and also the old classics like Wang Bi and Su Zhe. It was at that moment that I began to read, in addition to Laozi, Zhuangzi, Liezi, I Ching, Confucius, Huainanzi, Taoist classics such as some classics from the tradition of the Supreme Clarity and the Numinous Treasure, in which there is a syncretism of Taoist and Buddhist conceptions, reading in the original with the help of modern commentators. This learning to read and interpret from the original - helped sometimes by the help of my father Chiu Si-Yuan who would later become my master in these Chinese studies - to understand the great classical sutras such as the Diamond Sutra, Surangama Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra , and Huineng's Sutra (I particularly love this last book a lot) along with the comments of the Chinese Buddhist master Jin Kong was raised along with my frequent visits to the Tzon Guan temple here in São Paulo where I participated in some meditation and philosophical discussion meetings . In this search, I got to know the CCBB (Center for Bodhisattva Buddhist Studies) and attended the meditations in that space, and the group studies based on the reading and analysis of Nagarjuna's philosophy. I realized that there is a similarity with respect to certain philosophical concepts between the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism (especially Chan Buddhism), and also between Buddhism and Taoism not in a generic and super cial way, but in an essential way. I made some videos about this relationship and many other topics that 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 are registered on my website. Some philosophy students and professors still within universities are reluctant to recognize the philosophical dimension of classic books like Dao De Jing, I Ching, and Zhuangzi. With this combination of academic methodology and self-taught spirit, I was able to better understand classical Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and, reanalyzing this recent past, I see how much it currently contributes to my work in Taoism courses, in YOUTUBE videos and in lives with experts and researchers. quali ed as professors Joaquim Monteiro, Monica Simas (USP), Humberto Coelho (UFJF), David Lira (UFPE), William Figueiredo (UMSP), Caio Souto (IFAM), among others. This hybrid training is re ected in my classes and, precisely because of some of the students' de ciencies, I realized that the translation, analysis and comments of Chinese experts help a lot to solve problems of understanding, since with my knowledge of the Chinese language and also of the philosophy I can contribute to a more accurate and less super cial understanding of Taoist philosophy, as well as Buddhist philosophy. My translations of Laozi's “Dao De Jing” and Liezi's “Perfect Void” are natural outgrowths of this teaching process. Another turning point in my career was my return to Taiwan in 2014 as a guest of the Taipei Cultural Center, which o ered me nancial subsidies to stay for a month. It was a new awakening in the sense of a renewal for my path in Taoism, whose ancestry I have been updating in a constant process. When I returned to Brazil, I was invited to teach Taoism courses at the Taipei Cultural Center. In this sense, it catalyzed new possibilities of educating, thinking and being in an increasingly complex world based on the interdisciplinarity provided by the holistic view. It intensi ed my Chinese studies when I returned to Brazil. Thus, reading the works of Laozi, Liezi and Plotino in the original Chinese and Classical Greek, I found similarities in terms of systems thinking in the three authors. This opened new doors. I gave an extension course on Chinese Thought at UNIFESP, lectures and courses at institutions such as Faculdade EBRAMEC, Espaço Tapera Taperá, among others. Interviews for Jornal Estadão, TV Chinese Hong Guan, Revista Macau, Revista Zunái, and publications in Magazines such as Revista Daojia, Revista Intertelas, Revista Mística Revolucionaria, Revista Brazilhr, Revista Incomunidade, Revista Piparote, all registered on my website www.mandarimtaoismo.com . As a result of this work, during the pandemic, I performed several lives with teachers, educators, artists and people who are dedicated 台 灣 大 學 政 治 學 系 中 國 大 陸 暨 兩 岸 關 係 教 學 與 研 究 中 心 to the journey of knowledge. Currently I make constant videos on my Taoist Philosophy channel on YOUTUBE. I perceive a lot of interest from Brazilians in our Chinese culture and philosophy, and therefore, I feel that my work has been gaining immense value on social networks, considering the comments that people write on the YOUTUBE wall, their observations, recommendations, praise and criticism. The new generations have been developing a growing interest in this area. As a teacher, I feel deeply grati ed because I know that my work is re ected in the human development of each person and increasingly spreads knowledge. This means expanding new cultural horizons between Chinese-speaking countries and Brazil in the sense of growth for both parties, that is, new challenges, dialogues and exchanges. Therefore, I feel totally committed to this wonderful path, because little by little the fruits of the work are appearing and revealing themselves, and everyone bene ts in this process, especially the new generations who are favored by the intense strengthening of such relationships. I know that if I continue to progress on my path, other institutions and people will naturally dialogue with my work and that way everyone will bene t.