CHEN Donghai taught me the Chinese conversation in 1967 and 1968.
He was age nearly 60s and I was just 20, how young I was.
Time flies so fast, oh half a century.
I now became 73 in this summer 2020.
He was the important adviser for making The Iwanami Chinese Dictionary that was the first alphabetically arranged Chinese dictionary in Japan.
I have the dear memory for him.
He ever heard JIngji, classical Chinese opera, in Beijing, that was for hearing not for seeing, so hear-opera people sat sideways toward the opera’s stage. He talked us such condition for hearing pleasantly.
CHEN Donghai, after all, taught us the Beijing’s supreme tradition on history and culture succeeding the glorious Qing dynasty.
My language study’s basis was constructed in those days being led by CHEN Donghai.
Tokyo
23 May 2012 Text first written
23 January 2017 Revised
22 August 2020 Revised
Sekinan Research Field of Language