Professor '''Nils Göran David Malmqvist''' (, ) (born Swedish linguist, member of the Swedish Academy (''Chair No.5''), literary historian, sinologist and translator. 

==Biography ==
Göran Malmqvist was born in 1924 in Chinese under Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren at Stockholm University, Malmqvist studied in China in 1948 - 1950. He then returned to Stockholm, taking a Licentiate of Arts degree in 1951. His international research career started shortly thereafter with a lectureship in Chinese at the University of London in 1953 - 1955. He was then appointed Swedish cultural attaché in Peking and worked in China in 1956 –1958. 

===Academic career ===
After his years in China he moved to phonological issues and literary Sïchuanese and western Mandarin phonology.

===Writing and translation ===
In 1965, Malmqvist was called to Stockholm as Professor of Sinology, particularly Modern Chinese, at the newly-established Section of Chinese in the Department of Oriental Languages at Stockholm University. Back in Stockholm, his career as a translator also began, with a series of interpretations of Tang Dynasty lyrics in the anthology ''Det förtätade ögonblicket'' (The compact moment)<ref>Göran Malmqvist, ''Det förtätade ögonblicket'' (The compacted moment), Stockholm : Forum, 1965</ref>. Malmqvist has since translated 42 volumes of Chinese literature from different epochs. From that point on, Malmqvist was to appear as an all-round expert on China. He combines broad surveys of Chinese history, religion, politics and geography with increasingly multifarious work as a translator. In this capacity he moves freely between different historical periods, different Chinese languages, different literary genres. 

In 1971, Malmqvist published several textbooks including ''Nykinesisk grammatik'' (Grammar of Modern Chinese) and ''Nykinesisk fonetik'' (Phonetics of Modern Chinese), a number of translations, chiefly in the academic journal ''Orientaliska studier'' (Oriental studies), and the large section on ''Chinese literature 500–1779'' in the joint Nordic ''Litteraturens världshistoria'' (World history of literature). This was followed in 1973 with the section on ''The literature of China 1780–1890'' and ''Chinese literature 1890–1965''. The same year he published the translation of Lao She’s short stories in ''Det sorgsna skrattet'' (The sorrowful laugh)<ref>Lao She, ''Det sorgsna skrattet'', Stockholm : Forum, 1972, ISBN 91-37-05185-7</ref>. In 1974 Malmqvist published the popular volume ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'' (Chinese isn’t difficult)<ref>Göran Malmqvist, ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'', Stockholm : Aldus, 1974, ISBN 91-0-039660-5</ref>. 

During the 1970s, he was also working on the translation of the over thousand page picaresque novel ''Shui Hu zhuan''. The Swedish title is ''Berättelser från träskmarkerna'' (Tales from the swamps) and the work appeared in four volumes between 1976 and 1979. The story, which was first written down in the 14th century, is clearly oral in character and gives a rich picture of the end of the Färden till västern'' (The journey to the West). Written down in the 16th century, the story of how in the 17th century the pilgrim Tripitaka brings the holy writings of Buddhism from India to China. During the 1970s and 1980s Malmqvist’s research turned chiefly to classical Chinese philology, syntax and semantics.

'''Göran Malmqvist''', född 6 juni 1924 i Jönköping, är en svensk språkforskare, professor, översättare och Kinaexpert.

== Karriär ==

Malmqvist föddes i Jönköping men tillbringade barndomen i skånska högre allmänna läroverket i Borås, innan han 1945 började läsa latin och grekiska i Uppsala med ambitionen att bli lektor i klassiska språk.

Under studietiden kom Malmqvist att upptäcka kinesiskan genom Lin Yutangs ''Konsten att njuta av livet''. Efter kontakt med sinologen och professorn Bernhard Karlgren flyttade Malmqvist hösten 1946 till Stockholm, för att studera kinesiska vid Stockholms högskola.

På stipendium från Rockefellerstiftelsen reste Malmqvist 1948 med lastfartyg via buddistiskt filosofie licentiatexamen.

Malmqvist akademiska karriär var länge internationellt inriktad. Med undantag för åren 1956-1958, då han var kulturattaché i Peking, arbetade Malmqvist först på ett lektorat i kinesiska vid professor emeritus vid sagda universitet 1990.

== Akademisk gärning ==

Malmqvists inledande översättargärning var främst inriktad på Tanglyrik, men han har sedermera översatt både äldre och nyare kinesisk litteratur, däribland medeltidsromanerna ''Berättelser från träskmarkerna'' och ''Färden till Västern'' samt verk av nobelpristagaren Gao Xingjian och poeten Bei Dao.

Han har författat en introduktion till kinesisk språklära, läroböcker i fonetik och grammatik samt samlingsverk om kinesisk litteratur genom årtusendena. Mot slutet av sin gärning fokuserar han klassisk kinesisk filologi, syntax och semantik.