On September 9th, 2024, the thesis proposal meeting of Prof. Ye Jiaying’s The Beauty of Passive Virtue: On the Aesthetic Characteristics of Ci (Russian version), one of the projects of the Chinese Academic Foreign Translation Project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, was held online. This project was announced by Dr. Ye Fangfang from the School of Foreign Studies (SFS) at Nankai University (NKU) in collaboration with the Commercial Press, with Dr. Ye Fangfang serving as the host and main translator.
Professor Wang Lidan, head of the Russian Department of SFS, NKU, presided over the thesis proposal meeting. Meng Delong, the vice minister of the Department for Humanities & Social Sciences Research Administration of NKU, attended the lecture and delivered a speech. The defense committee consisted of Prof. Wang Lidan, Prof. Li Yijin of Tianjin Normal University, and Сергей Владимирович Беликов (Chinese name: 谢尔盖), a foreign teacher of the Russian Department of SFS, NKU, with Prof. Wang serving as the convener of the defense. Additionally, Prof. Yan Guodong, Dean of SFS, NKU, and Prof. Zhang Bing from the Institute of Russian Culture at Peking University were present at the defense meeting.
Professor Wang Lidan started the meeting by introducing the participants and extended a warm welcome to the experts in attendance.
During the experts’ speech, Professor Meng Delong congratulated SFS on its recent achievements within the Chinese Academic Foreign Translation Project. He highlighted that The Beauty of Passive Virtue is a concentrated manifestation of Prof. Ye Jiaying’s Thoughts of Ci. He hoped that Dr. Ye Fangfang could do a good job in the translation of this book on the basis of a deep understanding of Prof. Ye’s academic thoughts.
Professor Yan Guodong said that it is the duty of SFS to promote the translation and dissemination of Prof. Ye Jiaying’s academic works. Nankai University is not only a place where Prof. Ye Jiaying devoted herself to teaching and researching classical Chinese poems for many years, but also the most fruitful institution for studying her academic contributions. The School of Foreign Studies at Nankai University, recognized as a pivotal center for the cultivation of national translation talents, has also been deeply nourished by Prof. Ye Jiaying’s academic philosophy and the spirit of her poetry instruction. This provides SFS with a distinctive advantage in translating her works. He believed that Dr. Ye Fangfang and her team would make full use of the platform and disciplinary advantages to ensure the smooth implementation of the project.
In the project defense, Dr. Ye Fangfang gave a report on the project from seven aspects: the general situation of authors and manuscripts, team members and division of labor, publishing units, translation norms and processes, editing and publishing processes, publicity and promotion programs and schedule arrangements. 
The defense committee highly affirmed the significance of the project, emphasizing that “the beauty of passive virtue” represents an important contribution made by Prof. Ye Jiaying to the study and theoretical construction of contemporary Chinese classical poetry on the basis of the development of theories of ancient Chinese poetry. The translation of this book will facilitate the dissemination of the concept of “the beauty of passive virtue”, promote the further study of the aesthetic characteristics and ideological value of Ci in Russian sinology, and help Russian readers deepen their aesthetic comprehension and feelings of classical Chinese poetry.
The defense committee spoke highly of the project implementation plan and its preliminary achievements, while also analyzing and providing guidance on potential challenges related to translating academic concepts, proper nouns, and poetry. They suggested the project team make reasonable use of a variety of translation methods and techniques to ensure the accurate transmission of Prof. Ye’s Ci-poetry thoughts and her writing style and make the translation conform to the norms of the Russian language and readers’ acceptance habits. On the whole, the defense committee considered that the project implementation process was standardized and properly arranged, the translation team was strong and the division of labor was reasonable, the translation samples was accurate and rigorous, and the host of the project gave a satisfactory response to the comments of the experts in the evaluation and defense. Therefore, the committee unanimously agreed that the project had passed the opening defense. Dr. Ye Fangfang expressed her thanks to all the experts and said that she would carefully consider the opinions and suggestions of the defense experts and commit to delivering a high-quality translation to ensure that the project was completed on time and smoothly.
