Conduction In China

Hong Kong, 2010 by Susie Mallett 

A wonderful Christmas gift

I wrote in an earlier posting that my first book was in the process of being translated into Chinese and that it would hopefully be launched at a Conductive Education congress in Shanghai, on 26^th December 2011.

Yesterday I received the a lovely surprise Christmas Gift; the news reached me that the book has been printed, that copies are on their way to me, and that each person attending the congress will be given a copy!

Wow!

Of course I cannot read the Chinese version of my book. I have no way of knowing through looking at the pages whether the translation reflects my style or if my soul and my passion for my work shine through. I trust the project leader to have done a wonderful job.

I respect very much the work that is being done conductively in Hong Kong and I am amazed at the speed with which SAHK (formerly the Spastic Society of Hong Kong) is spreading the conductive word in mainland China.

I am very proud that they have chosen my book to assist in describing now to live conductively and how to practice conductive upbringing. I am thrilled to have received an English translation of the preface by Ivan Su and thank him for allowing me to publish it here:

Preface

The original English version was written by Ms Susie Mallett, the first book in her writing series debuted at the 7^th World Congress on Conductive Education in 2010. Using narrative essays to illustrate conductive upbringing and lifestyle is a rare form that is not always available on the market, and the realization of this Chinese version for the Cross-Strait-Four-Region readers happened only by chance.

While hurrying to the pre-Congress workshop held at our Conductive Learning Centre, Ms Mallett came across an expatriate woman in the street and asked her for directions. The lady was Sister Joan O’Connor (Chairman, Marion Fang Conductive Education Management Committee, SAHK).  They met for their first time and appeared to have hit it off. Ms Mallett gave Sister O’Connor her new book as a gift.  After reading the book, Sister O’Connor showed great appreciation and highly recommended it to Mr. Fong, Chief Executive Officer of our Association.  This has given rise to the Chinese translation.

Ms Mallett is a native British Hungarian-trained conductor, currently practicing in Nuremberg, Germany.  She speaks fluent English, German and Hungarian.  This gives her enormous leverage in acquiring the essence of Conductive Education as founded by German-speaking Jewish-Hungarian Prof. Petö. Susie Mallett once discovered an early German writing of Prof. Petö from an old book shop.  Since then, she has spent a substantial amount of time and effort in the search of the gestation of Conductive Education in Petö’s time.  Her perseverance and seriousness in pursuing the truth has engendered my greatest salutation.

Thanks to Principal Lui Kwong Bin’s volunteered translation work, we maintained a close communication throughout the translation period.  We pay tribute to her endeavor, to the utmost of her ability, to provide a faithful rendering of the jargons in the conductive world.  We also thank Ms Karen Lau and Mr. Simon Lee for their careful proofreading and liaison.

Ivan Su

Winter 2011, Hong Kong

 

As I implied in the title of this blog, what better Christmas present could I wish for than this.

Thank you to Ivan and SAHK.

I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and I welcome any new readers who find me and my blog this weekend after receiving my book in their Shanghai Congress package.

PS

If there is anyone in Shanghai who would like to send me a photograph of a Chinese copy of Let me tell you a story, Book I, I would be extremely happy to receive it. This really is a time when I can honestly say that I wish I was there to take it myself!

Notes

Let me tell you a story, Book I, by Susie Mallett -

http://www.susie-mallett-booksandmore.com/