Renowned translator Xu Yuanchong dies at 100, hailed for classic works

Distinguished Chinese translator Xu Yuanchong passed away on Thursday. He was 100.

Xu also a professor at Peking University known for his countless translation works of ancient Chinese poetry and many English and French literary works.

Xu began his translating career in the 1930s and made enormous contributions to introducing foreign literature to China and ancient Chinese poetry to the world.

Known as “the only master in China who can translate classical Chinese poetry, English and French verse,” Xu translated over 120 publications in Chinese, English, and French, and won the Chinese Translation Culture Lifetime Achievement Award in December 2010. He also won the Aurora Borealis Prize for Outstanding Translation of Literature in 2014 at the age of 93, making him the first person in Asia to win the prize.

He has translated famous French masterpieces including Madame Bovary, The Red and the Black, and Remembrance of Things Past into Chinese, and introduced to the world countless ancient poems of the Tang Dynasty ( 618- 907) and Song Dynasty ( 960- 1279), and The Book of Songs, the country’s earliest collection of poetry, by translating them into English.

“They like uniforms, not the gay dresses,” goes a well- known poem from late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, which depicted a military training picture of female soldiers.

However, Xu introduced his unique way of translating the sentence, which goes as “Most Chinese daughters have a desire strong, they like to face the power, not to powder the face.” It became one of the most quoted translations as netizens pay tribute to this legend.

Xu tried his hand at translation in college, when he quoted “of the people, by the people, for the people” from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to explain Sun Yat- sen’s Three Principles of the People to foreigners.

“I was astonished and am saddened by his death. Professor Xu was quite a lovable and sincere person,” said Cui Meng, a student of Peking University.

Cui told the Global Times that he attended Xu’s 100th birthday party months ago where he had a chance to talk to Xu in person. “He had bad hearing so he always tilted toward me and listened carefully when I spoke to him,” added Cui.

“I was so lucky that I once met Professor Xu. He was always energetic and full of passion when talking about translations and poetry,” said one netizen who posted photos of them together on Weibo.