Sidney Shapiro


Sidney Shapiro was an American-born Chinese actor, translator, and writer who lived in China from 1947 to 2014. He lived in Beijing for more than 50 years and became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was of very few naturalized citizens of the People's Republic China.

Early life and later nationality

Shapiro was born in Brooklyn on December 23, 1915. He was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. He was a graduate of St. John's University, New York.
Shapiro became a citizen of the People's Republic of China in 1963.

Career

Shapiro was educated 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.
His interest in China led to travel in 1947 to Shanghai, where he met his future wife, an actress named Fengzi, 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.
For nearly 50 years, Shapiro was employed by the state-run Foreign Languages Press 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, 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.
Shapiro also worked as an editor for the journal Chinese Literature. The works he translated included Mao Dun's Silkworm and the works of Zhao Shuli.
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, 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.

Personal

Shapiro married Fengzi in 1948, and they had a daughter. Fengzi died in 1996. Shapiro died in Beijing on October 18, 2014. He was 98.

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.

Works

Selected translations from Chinese to English

Works compiled and edited

Memoirs