after he completely retired from university teaching in the late 1990s, professor mather and another retired chinese professor at the university of minnesota, chun-jo liu, teamed up to form a private chinese reading and translating group. the group was composed of chinese professors and other highly educated individuals who had an advanced knowledge of chinese, especially classical chinese. the group would generally meet once or twice a week to read chinese literature and poetry and then translate it into english. the group also participated in chinese language conferences at which their panel members would read papers on their particular areas of interest and research.