Sidney Shapiro () (December 23, 1915 – October 18, 2014) was an American-born Chinese lawyer, translator, actor and writer who lived in China from 1947 to 2014. He lived in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

for more than 50 years and eventually became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was one of very few naturalized citizens of the PRC.

Early life

Shapiro was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

on December 23, 1915. He was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. He was a graduate of St. John's University, New York.Dec 23, 2014. ''An American Dies in China ... and Why I Mourn Him!''

Nationality

Shapiro held citizenship of the People's Republic of China from 1963 to the end of his life. In 1983, he was appointed as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Council (CPPCC), which ostensibly provides a forum for input from non-Communist political organizations.

Career

Shapiro trained as a lawyer and was disturbed by perceived inequalities during the

Great Depression in the United States In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high ...

. In 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He applied for French language school, but was sent to a Chinese language school in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

instead. His interest in China led to travel in 1947 to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, where he met his future wife, an actress named Fengzi (Phoenix), who was a supporter of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

. Partly through her influence, Shapiro became a supporter too. He settled in China and remained there after the Communists took power in 1949. For nearly 50 years, Shapiro was employed by the state-run

Foreign Languages Press Foreign Languages Press is a publishing house located in China. Based in Beijing, it was founded in 1952 and currently forms part of the China International Publishing Group, which is owned and controlled by the Publicity Department of the ...

(FLP) as a translator of works of Chinese literature. He is best known for his English version of ''

Outlaws of the Marsh ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is ...

,'' one of the most important classics of Chinese literature. In 1958, he published a translation of ''The Family'', a novel by

Ba Jin Ba Jin ( Chinese: 巴金; pinyin: ''Bā Jīn''; 1904–2005) was a Chinese writer. In addition to his impact on Chinese literature, he also wrote three original works in Esperanto, and as a political activist he wrote ''The Family''. Name He w ...

or Pa Chin, pen name of Li Yaotang (aka Feigan), one of the most widely read Chinese writers of the 20th century. Certain passages, notably the anarchist elements, were deleted from this edition, but Shapiro later published a full translation.Shapiro, Sidney (translator). ''Family'' Shapiro was also an actor in many Chinese movies, becoming typecast as the American villain. Shapiro wrote a memoir ''I Chose China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man'', but its publication was delayed until 1997 because he feared that it would offend the Chinese authorities.Shapiro, Sidney. ''I Chose China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man''

Personal

Shapiro married Fengzi in 1948, and they had a daughter.Oct 21, 2014. Shanghai Daily. Fengzi died in 1996. Shapiro died in

on October 18, 2014. He was 98.

Legacy

On December 26, 2014, it was announced that the

China International Publishing Group The China International Publishing Group (CIPG), also known as the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, is a foreign-language publishing organization in China owned and controlled by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chine ...

was establishing a Sidney Shapiro Research Center to investigate and establish criteria for translation between Chinese and English.Zhang Yue,
Research Center Honors Late Translator
''China Daily USA'', Dec. 26, 2014.

Works

Selected translations from Chinese to English

*Ba Jin, '' The Family'', Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1958 *

Shi Nai'an Shi Nai'an (, ca. 1296–1372) was a Chinese writer from the Yuan and early Ming periods. ''Shuihu zhuan'' (''Water Margin''), one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, is traditionally attributed to him. There are few re ...

, ''

'', Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980 *

, ''Selected Works'', Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1988 *

Mao Dun Shen Dehong (Shen Yanbing; 4 July 1896 – 27 March 1981), known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese essayist, journalist, novelist, and playwright. Mao Dun, as a 20th-century Chinese novelist, literary and cultural critic, and Minist ...

, ''The Shop of the Lin Family and Spring Silkworms'', Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2004. * Deng Rong, ''Deng Xiaoping and the Cultural Revolution: A Daughter Recalls the Critical Years'', New York: C. Bertelsmann, 2005

Works compiled and edited

*''Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars'', New York:

Hippocrene Books Hippocrene Books is an independent US publishing press located at 171 Madison Avenue, New York City, NY 10016. Hippocrene specializes in foreign language study guides, international cookbooks, and Polish-interest publishing. The foreign lan ...

, 1984; paperback edition: Hippocrene Books, 1988

Memoirs

*''An American in China: Thirty Years in the People's Republic''. New American Library 1979. *''I Chose China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man'',

1997.

References

External links

gluckman.com

Profile of Shapiro from ''The National''
15 August 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Sidney 1915 births 2014 deaths Male actors from New York City American emigrants to China Chinese–English translators Chinese Jews Chinese male film actors Chinese non-fiction writers Chinese people of American-Jewish descent Jewish American attorneys Jewish American male actors Jewish American writers Lawyers from New York City Naturalized citizens of the People's Republic of China St. John's University (New York City) alumni Writers from Brooklyn American magazine founders 21st-century American Jews