羡林

While I was pondering on the history of the Uyghur and Hui people, the obituary of Ji Xianlin (季羡林) appeared on the morning paper.

I shall not join the debate on the significance of the academic contribution of Ji. (He was an expert in some foreign languages, but his contribution to Chinese history and literature was rather subtle. Moreover, most of his scholarly work was done before 1956 - when he joined the Communist Party.) Suffice to say the old professor was no doubt an expert in Indian culture and history, as well as ancient languages such as Tocharian (吐火羅語), Sanskrit (梵語), and Pali (巴利語).

Ji founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University in 1946 - a place that is now well staffed with experts in Mongolian, Hebrew, Prussian, Korean, Thai, Burma, Indian, Philippine, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sanskrit.

There seems no one interested in the history or language of Uyghur or Hui.

PS. Although Tocharian is usually regarded as an ancient language of India, much of the current knowledge is based on archaeological work in Xinjiang (新疆) - where Uyghur people are now living.