Sidney Shapiro

{{Infobox person

| name = Sidney Shapiro

| image = Sidney Shapiro.jpg

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|12|23}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|10|18|1915|12|23}}

| death_place = Beijing, China

| other_names = {{zh|c=沙博理}}

| occupation = Actor, lawyer, translator, writer

| known_for = Translation of Chinese novels of notable Chinese authors such as Ba Jin and Mao Dun into English.
Became citizen of People's Republic of China.

| spouse = Fengzi

}}

Sidney Shapiro ({{zh|c=沙博理|p=Shā Bólǐ}}; December 23, 1915 – October 18, 2014) was an American-born Chinese actor, lawyer, translator, and writer who lived in China from 1947 to 2014. He lived in Beijing 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 on December 23, 1915.{{Cite news |last=Hornby|first=Lucy|date=2014-10-24|title=American who Reached Beijing Before Mao and Never Left |work=The Financial Times |url = https://www.ft.com/content/b03a8a4e-5a15-11e4-be86-00144feab7de |access-date=2021-04-09}} 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! {{cite web |url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-weston/an-american-dies-in-china_b_6037784.html |title=Huffingtonpost.com |website=HuffPost |date=23 October 2014 |access-date= Dec 17, 2016}}{{unreliablesource|date=October 2024}}

Nationality

Shapiro became a citizen of the People's Republic of China in 1963.{{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Lanjun |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=Translation and Internationalism}}{{Rp|page=82}}

Career

Shapiro trained as a lawyer and was disturbed by perceived inequalities during the Great Depression in the United States. In 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He applied for French language school, and was sent to a Chinese language school in San Francisco instead. His interest in China led to travel in 1947 to Shanghai, where he met his future wife, an actress named Fengzi (Phoenix), who was a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. Partly through her influence, Shapiro became a supporter too. He settled in China and remained there after the Communists took power in 1949.{{Citation |last=Pan |first=Guang |title=Jewish Refugees and the Chinese People: Friendship in a Troubled Time |work=A Study of Jewish Refugees in China (1933–1945): History, Theories and the Chinese Pattern |pages=63–83 |year=2019 |editor-last=Pan |editor-first=Guang |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9483-6_6 |access-date=2021-04-09 |location=Singapore |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-981-13-9483-6_6 |isbn=978-981-13-9483-6 |s2cid=203457826|url-access=subscription }}

For nearly 50 years, Shapiro was employed by the state-run Foreign Languages Press (FLP) as a translator of works of Chinese literature. He is best known for his English version of Outlaws of the Marsh, a classic of Chinese literature. In 1958, he published an English translation of The Family, a novel by Ba Jin 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; Shapiro later published a full translation.{{cite web |url = https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/255095.Family |title=Family |website=goodreads.com |access-date= Dec 17, 2016 |translator=Shapiro, Sidney |translator-link=Sidney Shapiro }}

Shapiro also worked as an editor for the journal Chinese Literature.{{Rp|page=82}} The works he translated included Mao Dun's Silkworm and the works of Zhao Shuli.{{Rp|page=82}}

Shapiro was also an actor in many Chinese movies, becoming typecast as the American villain.

In 1983, he was appointed as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Council (CPPCC), which provides a forum for input from non-Communist political organizations.

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 {{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/561647.I_Chose_China| title=goodreads.com |accessdate= Dec 17, 2016}}

Personal

Shapiro married Fengzi in 1948, and they had a daughter.{{cite web |url = http://www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/152723.htm |title=china.org.cn|access-date= Dec 17, 2016}}Oct 21, 2014. Shanghai Daily. {{cite web |url = http://www.china.org.cn/china/2014-10/21/content_33820794.htm |title = Sidney Shapiro Dies in Beijing |website = china.org.cn |access-date= Dec 17, 2016}} Fengzi died in 1996. Shapiro died in Beijing on October 18, 2014. He was 98.{{cite news|url=http://www.themalaymailonline.com/read/article/american-born-chinese-author-and-translator-sha-boli-dead-a-98|title=American-Born Chinese Author and Translator Sha Boli Dead at 98|publisher=themalaymailonline.com|date=October 20, 2014}}

=Legacy =

On December 26, 2014, the China International Publishing Group announced it was establishing a Sidney Shapiro Research Center to investigate and establish criteria for translation between Chinese and English.Zhang Yue, "[http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/2014-12/26/content_19178729.htm 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, Outlaws of the Marsh, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980
Ba Jin, Selected Works, Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1988
Mao Dun, 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, 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, Hippocrene Books 1997.

References

External links

[http://www.gluckman.com/Shapiro.html gluckman.com]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080902065950/http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080814/REVIEW/559194546/1008 Profile of Shapiro from The National], 15 August 2008

Category:1915 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:20th-century Chinese lawyers

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:American emigrants to China

Category:American magazine founders

Category:American magazine publishers (people)

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Businesspeople from New York City

Category:Chinese–English translators

Category:Chinese Jews

Category:Chinese magazine publishers (people)