Obituary: Professor David Edward Pollard (19 June 1937 - 6 February 2024)
David began learning Chinese in the Royal Air Force when he was conscripted for 2-years of compulsory National Service.
He was in a class of 30, almost all of them born in 1937, and they first met in 1956 in a decommissioned radar camp on top of a fog-prone cliff on the south coast of England. They had volunteered to learn Chinese as their “trade,” the course itself lasting a year, and then they would be sent to Hong Kong for what remained of their service time.
From the start it was known that three of their number would not be going to Hong Kong, but would be sent to London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to join the undergraduate Chinese course there, and potentially to undergo Officer Training. It came as no surprise that, as one of the best performing of the recruits, David’s name was on the list of the three selected. But he declined the offer and elected to go to Hong Kong with the rest of the course. To throw away the chance of such preferment might have seemed bizarre to his classmates, but he had reached the decision after his own cool evaluation of the choices. He enjoyed the time in Hong Kong, and never lost his delight in it, as his subsequent career clearly demonstrated. David knew his own mind.
Hong Kong for all its attractions was not an ideal place to improve fluency in the Chinese language. The dominant tongue spoken there was Cantonese, but the RAF course (in line with most educational institutions within and outside China) had taught the lingua franca of China, formerly known as Mandarin but now as Putonghua. Not that it mattered terribly - the recruits had been selected for their linguistic qualifications, but one year was never going to be enough to make native speakers of them.
When demobilisation came, David had a place ready at Cambridge to read modern languages, but, unsurprisingly, he switched to the degree course in Chinse. On graduating he took up a scholarship at Stanford University, and, when he returned to the U.K. in1962, he was appointed Lecturer in Chinese at SOAS, thus achieving what he had rejected before. He and I had been out of contact for quite a time, except for the occasional exchange of letters, but that correspondence revealed that David wrote beautiful English. I envied those who had the good fortune to sit at his feet. and I envied David himself for his superior accomplishments, especially when he was promoted to Professor of Chinese in 1978, but I consoled myself with the thought that, on a good day, I could, occasionally, beat him at squash.
He was not a self-publicist, and it was perhaps this that made him at first a little slow to appear in print. But he had written a thesis for his doctorate in 1970, and he had collaborated with Mr Terry Chang in the writing and broadcasting by the BBC of a ‘Chinese Language By Radio’ series. He was certainly not idle.
In any case a major change was coming. The first year of the SOAS Chinese course had been stumbling along using textbooks that we felt were not well suited to adult learners. But now David Pollard and T’ung Ping-cheng (P.C.T’ung) had written a beginner’s textbook, and this was a hit from the start. As if in homage, it was usually referred to as “T’ung & Pollard” rather than by its title, Colloquial Chinese. It went into print in 1982, well-planned, with interesting subject matter, enlightening grammar notes, and a bonus of the good-humoured literacy that both its authors possessed. Better yet, its publication seemed to liberate David’s pen. I would attribute the subsequent flowering of his writings to be owing, in part at least, to the success of T’ung & Pollard.
At around this time there were changes in David’s family life, and in 1989 he resigned from SOAS and moved to the Chinese University of Hong Kong as Professor of Translation Studies. His years in Hong Kong, both before and after formal retirement at the age of 60 in 1997, were highly productive of works translated from Chinese, and of his own original publications on (among other topics) literary genres, on modern Chinese authors, on translation and creation, and an autobiography written in Chinese. In 2003 David and his wife Dr Eva Hung took up residence in Salisbury, from which base they enjoyed a life of frequent travel, though both continued their scholarly activities too. Nor did they neglect their second home in Hong Kong, where they spent time every year until Covid and then ill health put an end to David’s mobility.
David was highly intelligent. had an inquiring mind but was rarely judgemental, and was always without aggression. A gentle, good-humoured man who found great pleasure in his work and in the culture he studied.
I recently received the following gem in an email from Eva. I quote:
One of David’s favourite pastimes in retirement was walking around in Tai Po [the New Territories town where they lived when in Hong Kong.] He made friends with owners of bookshops, fruit stalls, travel agencies, an environmental grocer, and a flyer of gigantic kites in the park. He [David] spoke perfect Mandarin, they a twisted Cantonese which they thought was Mandarin. It was some sight to behold.
That sounds so like the David I knew. He would have been smiling non-stop too. A lovely chap and a much valued friend.
He is survived by his wife Eva, his daughter Louise, her husband Glenn, their daughters Rebecca and Hannah, and David’s former wife Janese.
— Professor Hugh Baker
