This is how colleagues Göran Malmqvist remembers: "An Indiana Jones type"

Styrbjörn Gustafsson is the publisher of the book publisher Tranan, which has published several of Göran Malmqvist's translations of, among others, the Chinese author Mo Yan and the Taiwanese poet Yang Mu. They also collaborated on the release of what became Göran Malmqvist's last novel project: The Goldfish Who Loved Singing Mozart: Fifty Short Novels, from 2013.

- We always had a good and good cooperation during these years. My memories of him are only positive, both professionally and amicably, ”says Styrbjörn Gustafsson.

Malmqvist and Gustafsson found each other in a common passion for Asian literature, which characterizes both Tranan's publication and Göran Malmqvist's extensive translation work. They both saw how the Swedish book publishing was dominated by Western languages, and in Malmqvist's work to introduce Chinese authorship in Sweden, Styrbjörn Gustafsson sees a hugely important cultural act.

- He has been the leading sinologist for many years, probably no one else can compete with him there. He was the great introducer of Chinese literature in Sweden, and that is a great deed.

The author, journalist and Chinese connoisseur Ola Wong describes Göran Malmqvist as an "intellectual adventurer".

- A type that no longer exists. He went to China and did field work in the midst of a fierce civil war. He was involved in democracy and became a non-grata persona for telling the truth about the abuses during the Mao era, when the time spirit in Sweden in the rest of the cultural world was rather Maoist, he says.

After some time abroad, in Australia, among others, Göran Malmqvist returned to Sweden and, according to Ola Wong, built up the Chinese at Stockholm University from the ground up. There he introduced the students not only in the language but in the culture: the food, the poetry, the traditions.

- He was an Indiana Jones guy. Not afraid to take a conflict, did not tolerate racism, was always loyal to Chinese culture and tried to lift it but did not agree with the Communist Party and dared to say it.

Göran Sommardal is a poet, critic, radio producer and translator from Chinese, PhD in Sinology at Stockholm University under Göran Malmqvist.

- When I started reading Chinese, he was my teacher and he was my supervisor when I wrote my doctoral dissertation. We weren't that many at the time, so we became some kind of kuf-family where he was pretend dad, he says.

Göran Malmqvist was translated everything from hard-to-read classics to modern literature and lyric, says Göran Sommardal.

- He was very nice but strict. You couldn't get away just by being strict. He was the one who taught me to read classical Chinese in express, which you had to. When added, he was extremely encouraging and generous in sharing his knowledge.

Sinologist Lars Ellström also studied under Göran Malmqvist and met him for the first time in the 1960s.

- Göran was my professor. I had a great respect for him as a teacher, almost in a Chinese way. I am gripped by a great sense of missingness, says Lars Ellström when reached by the message.

- He has had a very important role in spreading knowledge about China and Chinese literature in Sweden.

The journalist and author Göran Leijonhufvud remembers Göran Malmqvist as brave with a great civilian curiosity.

- He took a strong stand on some elements of the Chinese regime and supported the students during the Beijing demonstrations in the spring of 1989. After condemning the massacre there, he found it difficult to travel to China for some time.

Göran Leijonhufvud, who also had Malmqvist as professor in the 1960s, says that Malmqvist took the students' desire to read Maoist writings with equanimity.

- He bought it in part and let us read them but at the same time continued to offer an exciting and eye-opening lesson in the classical texts.