Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, confirms for Sweden Radio that Göran Malmqvist has passed away. Malmqvist turned 95 years old.
Göran Malmqvist held chair number five in the Swedish Academy and was born in 1924 in Jönköping. Göran Malmqvist was a literature researcher, sinologist and translator and professor emeritus at Stockholm University.
According to the Swedish Academy's website, Göran Malmqvist worked abroad for much of his life, in China, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Göran Malmqvist has been a member of the Swedish Academy since 1985 when he succeeded literature researcher Henry Olsson.
In 2012, questions were raised about the controversy surrounding Göran Malmqvist after Mo Yan chose that year's Nobel Laureate in literature. This after it emerged that Malmqvist and Mo Yan were friends. He also ended up in conflict with poet Li Li after writing a poem in which he must have expressed condescension about Göran Malmqvist's wife.
In the 50s, Göran Malmqvist began his international research career after studying Chinese at Stockholm University and in China. 1956 - 1958 he was a cultural attaché in Beijing and in the 1960s he was appointed professor of Chinese at the Australian University in Canberra.
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