Li Bai on the BBC – 1938-2022

Just a quick one – Heard In Our Time on BBC R4 the other day (still on BBC Sounds if you missed it) on Li PO/Li Bai. Both panellists Tian Yuan Tan & Frances Wood read some Li Bai in Chinese – I think the last person who did that on BBC radio was Chiang Yee on BBC North in 1938, as noted in…Donald Boyd, Regional Director of BBC North, reported that he had auditioned Chiang but felt his English was not ‘good enough to read translations of his poetry’, but that he could read them in Chinese and this might work in ‘a highbrow poetry space’. Tian Yuan Tan & Frances Wood got to do their own translations in 2022. You can listen to the programme on Tang Dynasty poetry here.