Ferenc Tokei

Ferenc Tőkei (1930–2000) was a Hungarian sinologist and phiosopher. He headed the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was a professor at Eötvös Loránd University, first in the Department of Philosophy (1971-1990) and then in the Department of Chinese Studies (1990-2000). He translated numerous classical Chinese texts into Hungarian and was credited with rethinking aspects of Marx’s thought, notably Marx’s ideas concerning “the Asiatic mode of production.”

Among his many works, Deleuze was particularly influenced by his Birth of Chinese Elegy (1959; French translation 1967) and Essays on the Asiatic Mode of Production (1965; French translation 1966), which included Tökei’s seminal 1960 essay, “On the Asiatic Mode of Production.”