Fu Lei (Fou Lei; ;

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Nu'an 怒安,

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Nu'an 怒庵; 7 April 1908 – 3 September 1966) was a Chinese translator and critic. His translation theory was dubbed the most influential in French-Chinese translation. He was known for his renowned renditions of Balzac and

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

Life and career

Born in

Nanhui Nanhui District (), Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Nanhwei, was a district of Shanghai until it was merged into Pudong New Area in May 2009. It had a land area of about and a coastline. The population of Nanhui was as of August ...

, today a district of

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, Fu was raised by his mother. Between 1928 and 1931 he read literature and art history in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, befriending, amongst others,

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aqui ...

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 The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign wa ...

, and was politically persecuted. In 1966, at the beginning of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, he and his wife Zhu Meifu committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

. 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 Huáng Bīnhóng (; January 27, 1865– March 25, 1955) was a Chinese literati painter and art historian born in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. His ancestral home was She County, Anhui province.Cihai: Page 2056. He was the grandson of artist Hua ...

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: ''

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

L'Art'' by * 1933: ''Chalot'' by Soupault * 1934: ''20 Lectures on World Masterpieces of Art'' * 1934: ''Vie de

Tolstoi Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

'' by Rolland * 1934: ''Vie de Michel-Ange'' by Rolland * 1935: ''

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

'' by Maurois * 1942: ''Vie de

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

'' by Rolland * 1949: '' Eugénie Grandet'' by Balzac * 1950: '' Le Père Goriot'' by Balzac * 1953: '' Colomba'' by Mérimée * 1953: ''

Jean-Christophe ''Jean-Christophe'' (1904‒1912) is the novel in 10 volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Prix Femina in 1905 and which contributed to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilb ...

'' by Rolland * 1955: ''

Candide ( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...

'' by

* 1956: '' Zadig'' by Voltaire * 1963: ''Philosophie de l'art'' by Taine * '' Cousin Bette'', '' Le Cousin Pons'', '' Colonel Chabert'' and some other works by Balzac * ''The Conquest of Happiness'' by

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

Letters *' (Chinese:傅雷家书)

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

Life and career

Scholarship

Legacy

Works

See also

References