中方发言文本
Dear Colleagues, Friends, Anne-Marie, Joshua, Liz and Isaac，
On behalf of the Institute of Ethnic Literature, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Folklore Society, as well as the director and president of the institute and the society—Chao Gejin, I hereby send our most sincere condolences for the loss of Professor John Miles Foley, a great scholar and leader in the field of Oral Tradition and Epic Studies.
We Chinese colleagues highly praise Professor Foley's contribution to the field of oral tradition. It is our common agreement that, since Milman Parry and Albert Lord, Professor Foley has been the most extraordinary and most innovative scholar, not only because he develops previous scholarship but also envisions new directions for the discipline. For Chinese academia, John's works provide insights and knowledge from both methodological and epistemological perspectives. This is very evident, since when looking up essays, papers, as well as thesis and dissertations in China, you will find how frequently Chinese students and scholars refer to John's works in their own research. We do benefit enormously from John’s writings, thoughts, and contributions.
If in the future, we are half as successful as John is, we will count ourselves the luckiest people in the world. Now, I want to end my speech by citing one of the homemade proverbs invented by John:
It's the play – not the script – that matters.
It means oral traditions must be enacted and experienced. And I am going to say, we are enacting and experiencing a brand-new direction pioneered by John Miles Foley.
ZHU,Gang
On behalf of CFS & IEL of CASS
