Claudine Salmon

"Words from Asia and the Pacific" is a series of interviews conducted by Jean-François Sabouret, Director of the Asie-Imasie Network (CNRS), with humanities researchers and experts on Asia and the Pacific.
Claudine Salmon was born in 1938 in Bruyères, in the Vosges. In 1962, she graduated in Chinese from the School of Oriental Languages. At the same time, she studied law (BA in 1963), literature (BA in 1964) and graduated from EHESS, 6th section, in 1969. Wife of Denys Lombard ("Le carrefour javanais, essai d'histoire globale" published by EHESS) she worked on the interactions between China and Southeast Asia (perceptions of the other in Chinese and Vietnamese travel accounts). In 1970, she defended her State thesis on "an example of Chinese acculturation: the province of Guizhou in the 18th century" and published with D.Lombard,"Temples et vie collective de la communauté chinoise de Jakarta" tTemples and collective life within the Jakarta Chinese community) in the first issue of Cahiers d'Archipel. She still takes part in the Archipel magazine of which she was once the editor.
She is one of the recognized specialists of Chinese cultural influence in Insulindia and has published among others: "Translations of Chinese novels into Malay (1880-1930)" in "Littératures contemporaines de l'Asie du Sud-Est", Colloque du 29ème Congrès International des Orientalistes, organized by P.B Lafont and D.Lombard, Éditions l'Asiathèque, (in collaboration with D.Lombard). She has also focused her research on the contribution of Chinese epigraphy in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam and Indonesia) for a better understanding of history and the diaspora and, on a broader scale, literary migration.
An illustrated bibliographical selection is presented at the end of the film.