Background

Sidney Shapiro was born on December 23, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York City. He was the son of Hyman Shapiro, an attorney, and Kate Samuelson Shapiro, a homemaker. He became a Chinese citizen in 1963.

Education

In 1939, Shapiro received a Bachelor of Laws at St. John’s University. He also attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1942, Columbia University from 1945 to 1946, and Yale University from 1946 to 1947.

Career

During World War II Shapiro joined the U.S. Army, and was trained to teach the Chinese language to other soldiers. After the war ended, Shapiro became more curious about China, and decided to visit the country in 1947. Shapiro, fell in love with Chinese culture, landed a job as an expert for the Foreign Language Press, a position he held for more than thirty years. He would not return to America to visit for many decades.

Sidney Shapiro was one of the few Westerners to gain Chinese citizenship and become a member of a high-level parliamentary body. He remained in China after the Communist revolution in 1949, when many Western foreigners left, and became a Chinese citizen in 1963 - an honor reserved only for a select few foreigners judged to have performed special services for China.

Better known in China by his Chinese name, Sha Boli, he was appointed in 1983 to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a largely ceremonial but high-profile advisory body to parliament. He lost none of his fire in the later part of his life, lambasting the United States in 2006 following one of the State Department’s regular criticisms of China’s human rights.

Achievements

• Sidney Shapiro was a famed U.S.-born translator, best known for his English translations of the Chinese classic novel “Outlaws of the Marsh,” as well as works by the more modern authors, such as Ba Jin and Mao Dun. In 2010, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Translators Association of China.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars

    (This book provides a wealth of information about the conf...)

    1985
  • I Chose China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man 1999
  • Selected Works of Ba Jin 2005
  • My China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man 1997
  • Ma Haide: The Saga of American Doctor George Hatem in China 1993

Views

Quotations: “Translators like us have the responsibility to let the world know that China has the richest tradition of virtue.”

Membership

Shapiro was a member of the People's Political Consultative Conference, a governmental assembly of the Provider Reimbursement Consultants which ostensibly provides a forum for input from non-Communist political organizations.

Connections

On May 16, 1948, Sidney married Phoenix Fengzi, a writer and drama critic. She died in 1996.

Father:

Hyman Shapiro

Mother:

Kate Samuelson Shapiro

Wife:

Phoenix Fengzi

11 August 1912 – 21 January 1996

Feng Jiren, known professionally as Fengzi (formerly romanized as Fung Tzu), also known as Feng Fengzi, was a Chinese actress, writer, literary editor, and dramatist.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, TV, & Other Fields, Vol. 193 n response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010