Victor Mair's birthday book

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An announcement at Cambria Press:

The announcement explains:

In honor of Professor Mair’s birthday, a rare collection of his essays titled China and Beyond has been compiled. China and Beyond was unveiled at the Cambria Sinophone World Series reception this past Friday at the 2013 AAS annual conference in San Diego.

A surprise birthday celebration for Professor Mair was part of the reception! The reception room was completely packed, and Cambria Press thanks all the guests (including some very special surprise guests) who made the event such a special one (pictures and videos, as well as the details on China and Beyond, will be posted soon).



24 Comments

  1. Sili said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 7:47 am

    I thought he had more hair.

    Congratulations, though.

  2. Meena Vathyam said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 8:12 am

    Happy B'day Professor Mair and congratulations!!!!! Thank you for all your great work!!!

  3. Victor Mair said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 8:17 am

    @Sili

    I get my hair cropped very close once a month by Chuck, barber to the Penn community for more than thirty years, at his shop on Spruce Street up near the Wawa store. He's the only barber who will listen to me when I tell him that I want it virtually bald way along the sides and back. But he also knows that he doesn't have to take much off the top (only a tiny bit).

  4. Charlie Clingen said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 8:18 am

    生日快乐! Professor Mair, it is an honor and a pleasure to be able to learn from your wisdom and experience! Thank you.

  5. languagehat said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 10:16 am

    I add my congratulations — a well-deserved honor.

  6. Antariksh Bothale said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 11:33 am

    Prof. Mair, is there some link where I can hear you speak Chinese and/or Japanese? Would love to.

  7. Victor Mair said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 4:21 pm

    @Antariksh Bothale

    I taught a graduate course at Tsinghua University in the fall of 2011 and another graduate course at Peking University in the spring of 2012. All of my lectures were delivered in Chinese. They are online somewhere, at least the Tsinghua lectures, but I don't know the URLs. However, I gave a public lecture on Sinology at Peking University near the end of my stay in Beijing and it is easy to view on YouTube at:

    http://youtu.be/VkoPGEHaqPo

    My talk starts at 9:10 (there are 9 minutes of gathering and introduction). I speak mostly in English, but there is a lot of Mandarin mixed in, plus some Japanese, a bit of German, French, and other languages as well, maybe even some Sanskrit and Persian.

  8. Rubrick said,

    March 29, 2013 @ 6:58 pm

    Congrautlations! But please don't urinate in the teapot!

  9. Cecilia Segawa Seigle said,

    March 30, 2013 @ 3:32 pm

    Wow! Victor!

    How wonderful! With all your assiduous and stimulating essay-writing, of course something like this should have come out. And it was very fitting that it was published in your honor on the occasion of your birthday. Congratulations! May this sort of books come out again and again on your future birthdays, and may you live to see 100 more of such collections!

  10. John Hill said,

    March 30, 2013 @ 7:51 pm

    No need to be embarrassed, Victor – I can't think of a more worthy person for such a present, and we will now all be able to enjoy more of your essays. I am really looking forward to sitting down to a wonderful read. Oh, and by the way, belated Happy Birthday wishes, and many, many happy returns!

  11. Endymion Wilkinson said,

    March 30, 2013 @ 8:03 pm

    Congratulations Victor! Can't wait to read the volume which no doubt contains hidden treasures. By the way which birthday was being celebrated?

  12. David Moser said,

    March 30, 2013 @ 10:59 pm

    Happy Birthday, Victor!
    But my question is, WHICH Victor Mair is celebrating his birthday? I've long maintained that one person working alone could not possibly be responsible for Prof. Mair's astonishing output. My theory has been that the scholar known as "Victor Mair" is composed of three dedicated sinologists working in tandem night and day to produce the unstoppable stream of books, articles, emails, Sino-Platonics and book reviews. (I should say that I have asked Victor about this point blank, and he has never denied it.) I still have no clue why the other two sinologists wish to remain anonymous (I suspect some Daoist hermit tendencies), but at least we are fortunate to have the debonair and sociable Victor we all know and love to represent the prolific Holy Trinity. So, whichever Victor it is, happy birthday to you all!

  13. Sima said,

    March 30, 2013 @ 11:12 pm

    Dear Victor,
    Many happy returns. And what a fine portrait!
    Thank you for all your patient support and encouragement.
    I look forward to reading this.
    Sima

  14. John Rohsenow said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 12:34 am

    Victor- Happy Birthday and congrats on the new book.
    May you live and prosper as long as our friend ZHOU Youguang!
    Best wishes – John R.

  15. Norman Leung said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 12:58 am

    Happy Birthday, Prof. Mair! Your class was one of my favorites, challenging me to rethink the status of Cantonese as topolect/language v dialect. I definitely credit you to my discovery of "Cantonese characters" as an ABC. To many more years of discovery!

  16. Endymion Wilkinson said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 5:28 am

    Whoops: apologies: just read the cover more carefully!

  17. Peter Nelson said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 11:55 am

    Happy belated birthday Prof. Mair!

  18. Matt said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 7:25 pm

    Happy even more belated birthday, Prof. Mair, and thanks for your patient and untiring engagement with us (intransigent and pedantic) non-academics on this blog. As David Moser says, it's often hard to believe that a single man can be behind all the work you do. Looking forward to the book!

  19. Randy Alexander said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 8:46 pm

    Congratulations! Hope many more happy birthdays and many more publications will be forthcoming!

  20. Heather Pringle said,

    March 31, 2013 @ 10:26 pm

    Victor: Here's wishing you a very belated happy birthday! And many congrats on the publication of this new book of essays! I can't wait to read it!

  21. J P Mallory said,

    April 1, 2013 @ 6:16 am

    I skimmed through the comments to see that David Moser had concluded what I had always suspected – you can take credit for one-third of the articles at best – and I suspect that Victor Mair is no more a real person that Ellery Queen or Franklin Dixon. Remember I was with you in Xinjiang for three weeks so I know you couldn't have done all those things and there are at least two of us now whom you haven't been able to fool.

  22. Pita Kelekna said,

    April 1, 2013 @ 6:41 pm

    HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY

    A wonderful volume and fitting tribute to decades of daring and innovative research, to be treasured in scholarly libraries around the world!

  23. Coming Soon! Videos and Pictures of Cambria Sinophone World Series Reception and Victor Mair’s 70th Surprise Birthday Party! | CAMBRIA PRESS said,

    April 1, 2013 @ 9:01 pm

    […] Surprise Birthday Party! The official release date compilation of Victor Mair's rare essays, China and Beyond by Victor H. Mair, published in honor of his 70th birthday, will also be announced […]

  24. Ben Goodman said,

    May 2, 2013 @ 10:18 am

    The special price of $49 for China and Beyond by Victor Mair (Regular Price $134.99) ends Saturday, May 4.

    See http://wp.me/p1WqrY-ps for the web coupon code and for more photos from the Cambria Press Sinophone World Series reception

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