Lucy Chao or Zhao Luorui (; May 9, 1912 – January 1, 1998) was a Chinese

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

Biography

Chao was born on May 9, 1912, in Xinshi, Deqing County,

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, China. She married

Chen Mengjia Chen Mengjia (; 20 April 1911, in Nanjing – 3 September 1966, in Beijing) was a Chinese scholar, poet, paleographer and archaeologist. He was considered the foremost authority on oracle bones and was Professor of Chinese at Tsinghua University ...

, an anthropologist and expert on

oracle bones Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...

, in 1932. In 1944 Chao and Chen were awarded a joint fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation to study at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in the United States. Chao earned her PhD from the institution in 1948, for a dissertation on

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. Afterwards, she returned to China to teach English and North American literature at

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

, Beijing. Chao's husband Chen opposed the government's proposal to simplify Chinese writing in the 1950s and was labeled a

Rightist Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

and an enemy of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. He was sent to a labor camp in 1957. After he returned, he was banned from publishing research and committed suicide after denunciation and persecution during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. After Chen's death, Chao developed schizophrenia. In spite of this, she created the first complete Chinese translation of

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

's ''

Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. T ...

'', which was published in 1991. That same year, she was awarded the University of Chicago's "Professional Achievement Award".

Works

Chao translated T. S. Eliot's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

'' (1937),

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

's ''

The Song of Hiawatha ''The Song of Hiawatha'' is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his l ...

'' and eventually saw a mass publication of her translation of the whole of Whitman's ''

'' (1991). She was a co-editor of the first Chinese-language ''History of European Literature'' (1979).

References

Sources

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External links

Walt Whitman in China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chao, Lucy 1912 births 1998 deaths English–Chinese translators Republic of China poets People's Republic of China poets Chinese women poets Writers from Huzhou Educators from Huzhou Yenching University alumni Tsinghua University alumni Academic staff of Yenching University Academic staff of Peking University University of Chicago alumni Republic of China translators People's Republic of China translators 20th-century Chinese women writers 20th-century Chinese translators 20th-century Chinese poets Poets from Zhejiang People from Deqing County, Zhejiang

Biography

Works

References

Sources

Further reading

External links