Abstract

By focusing on three different yet correlated disciplines in China in which the Sebeok’s Chinese connection has been found, this article elaborates on his personal contact with the Chinese semiotic community and extant constructive academic responses from Chinese semioticians. It provides a detailed description of the reasons for the uniqueness of Sebeok’s Chinese connection and proceeds to demonstrate the three major Chinese figures that used to know Sebeok and the interactions between them. Against the common belief that influence of Sebeok the semiotician, rather than Sebeok the convener, is quite minimal in China, I have proven that he did have a direct impact upon the Chinese semiotic literati, which is evident not only in the form of the work exclusively on Sebeok the person but also in the form of the writings in recognition of both his contributions to semiotics as a global cause and his status as the mid-wife of contemporary semiotics. As a projection into the future, I put forward a vision in which Sebeok’s work and achievements should be duly appreciated in their full extent by the new Eastern stronghold of semiotics