Life and career
Born in Nanhui, today a district of Shanghai, Fu was raised by his mother. Between 1928 and 1931 he read literature and art history in Paris, befriending, amongst others, Jacques Maritain and Jean Daniélou. Between 1932 and 1934 he taught art history at Shanghai Art Academy. An occasional critic and curator, for the most part of his working life, Fu Lei translated full-time. In 1958, Fu was labelled a rightist in the Anti-Rightist Movement, and was Political repression, politically persecuted. In 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he and his wife Zhu Meifu committed suicide. His letters to his son, the pianist Fou Ts'ong, were published in 1981. ''Fu Lei's Family Letters'' is a long-standing best-seller in China.Scholarship
Fu's close relationship with the artist Huang Binhong is the subject of the 2009 monograph, ''Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang Binhong'', by the Australian scholar Claire Roberts. Fu's life and work is the subject of the 2017 monograph, ''Fou Lei: An Insistence on Truth'', by the Chinese-British scholar Mingyuan Hu. It chronicles the hitherto unknown Parisian milieu and intellectual formation of Fu Lei through archival documents unearthed in France. Reviewing ''Fou Lei: An Insistence on Truth'', the sinologist and literary scholar John Minford wrote: “Here this absorbing book breaks new and fascinating ground, offering crucial evidence of the growth of a great translator’s mind.”Legacy
The Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award was created in 2009 by the French Embassy in China to recognize the works of Chinese translators and publishers translated from French publications.Works
Translations * 1932: ''Auguste Rodin, Rodin L'Art'' by * 1933: ''Chalot'' by Philippe Soupault, Soupault * 1934: ''20 Lectures on World Masterpieces of Art'' * 1934: ''Vie de Leo Tolstoy, Tolstoi'' by Rolland * 1934: ''Vie de Michelangelo, Michel-Ange'' by Rolland * 1935: ''Voltaire'' by André Maurois, Maurois * 1942: ''Vie de Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven'' by Romain Rolland, Rolland * 1949: ''Eugénie Grandet'' by Balzac * 1950: ''Le Père Goriot'' by Balzac * 1953: ''Colomba (novella), Colomba'' by Mérimée * 1953: ''Jean-Christophe'' by Rolland * 1955: ''Candide'' by Voltaire * 1956: ''Zadig'' by Voltaire * 1963: ''Philosophie de l'art'' by Hippolyte Taine, Taine * ''Cousin Bette'', ''Le Cousin Pons'', ''Colonel Chabert (novel), Colonel Chabert'' and some other works by Balzac * ''The Conquest of Happiness'' by Bertrand Russell Letters *' (Chinese:傅雷家书)See also
* Fu Lei's residence in Shanghai opened as a museum in 2019. * ''Death'' 死 by Chen Cun 陈村, short story in which the narrator visits the old home of Fu Lei, a dialogue with Fu Lei's ghost on the meaning of life.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fu, Lei 1908 births 1966 suicides 1966 deaths French–Chinese translators Suicides during the Cultural Revolution Joint suicides Artists from Shanghai Writers from Shanghai 20th-century Chinese translators Burials in Shanghai Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Victims of human rights abuses Nanyang Model High School alumni