Michal Boym on Polish Radio - interview with Dr. Małgorzata Religa

"Michal Boym considered himself a Pole and emphasized this Polishness," says Dr. Malgorzata Religa, head of the Department of Sinology at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Warsaw University, privately the daughter of Prof. Zbigniew Religa.

Despite such important contributions to the knowledge of the Middle Kingdom, his name is not widely known. - The blame for this probably lies with the sinologists who owe most to Boym, she adds. 

Boym was born in 1612 or 1614 in Lviv. His ancestors came to Poland with Stefan Batory. He owes the fact that he ended up in China to his order, the Jesuits. The Society sent him there as a missionary. The Jesuits had been conducting permanent missions in China for several decades. Representatives of the Society even got into the imperial court and had access to the ruler himself, which was a rarity in the country`s history. - Boym learned Chinese. He probably wielded not only Mandarin, but also southern dialects. He even contributed to improving the description of Chinese phonetics," says Dr. Religa.

The entire broadcast can be found at the link: Polak, który w XVII wieku był chińskim kartografem (polskieradio.pl)