Returning to China in 1956 for a three-year stint as cultural attache to a tense Peking, Malmqvist found the work left little time in which to pursue academic interests, although the couple associated with many writers and the writer Lao She became their good friend.
不過，在這三年當中，他們也結交了許多作家，老舍就是他們非常好的朋友。至於澳洲國立大學亞洲學院的六年教席，則是一段充實豐富的經驗。