Tang Yuemei (; born 1931) is a Chinese translator of Chinese Vietnamese ethnicity. Tang was a visiting professor at

Yokohama City University is a public university, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2013, YCU has two faculties with a total of around 4,850 students, 111 of whom are foreign. YCU also has four campuses (Kanazawa-Hakkei, Fukuura, Maioka and Tsurumi) and two ...

. She is most notable for being one of the main translators into Chinese of the works of the Japanese novelists

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...

and

Takiji Kobayashi was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel '' Kanikōsen'', or ''Crab Cannery Ship'', published in 1929. It tells the story of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen on board a cannery ...

Biography

Tang was born into a Chinese Vietnamese family in Cholon,

French Indo-China French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

in 1931, with her

ancestral home An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slight ...

. In 1956, Tang graduated from

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

, where she majored in Japanese at the Department of East Language and Literature. After graduation, Tang was appointed to the

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...

. In 1966, the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...

was launched by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

, Tang and her husband

Ye Weiqu Ye Weiqu (; 6 August 1929 – 11 December 2010) was a Chinese Vietnamese translator and scholar. Ye was a visiting professor at Waseda University, Gakushuin University and Ritsumeikan University. He was among the first few in China who translate ...

's whole collection of books was burned by the

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard le ...

, the couple were sent to the

May Seventh Cadre Schools The May Seventh Cadre Schools () were Chinese labor camps established during the Cultural Revolution that combined hard agricultural work with the study of Mao Zedong's writings in order to "re-educate" or '' laogai'' (reform through labor) cadres a ...

to work in Henan. In 1976,

Hua Guofeng Hua Guofeng (; born Su Zhu; 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008), alternatively spelled as Hua Kuo-feng, was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The design ...

and

Ye Jianying Ye Jianying (; 28 April 1897 – 22 October 1986) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the founding Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China. He was the top military leader in the 1976 coup that overth ...

toppled the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The ...

, the couple were rehabilitated by

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...

, at the same time, they started to study

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japan ...

. Tang started to publish works in 1978 and she joined the

China Writers Association China Writers Association or Chinese Writers Association (CWA, ) is a subordinate people's organization of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC). Founded in July 1949, the organization was initially named the China National Lit ...

in 1982.

Works

* ''The History of Japanese Drama'' () * '' The Sound of Waves'' (

) () * ''

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It was published in 1956 and translated into English by Ivan Morris in 1959. The novel is loosely based on the burning of the Reliquary (or Golden Pavilion) of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto by a young Bud ...

'' (Yukio Mishima) () * ''

The Sea of Fertility is a tetralogy of novels written by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. The four novels are '' Spring Snow'' (1969), ''Runaway Horses'' (1969), ''The Temple of Dawn'' (1970), and ''The Decay of the Angel'' (1971).

'' (Yukio Mishima) () * '' Confessions of a Mask'' (Yukio Mishima) () * ''

Thirst for Love ''Thirst for Love'' (or 愛の渇き, Ai no Kawaki) is a 1950 novel by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The word "kawaki" literally means ''thirst'', but has a sense of parched dryness associated with it. ''Thirst for Love'' is Mishima's third ...

'' (Yukio Mishima) () * (Yukio Mishima) () * (

Toyoko Yamasaki was a Japanese novelist. A native of Osaka, Yamasaki worked as a journalist for the Mainichi Shimbun from 1945 to 1959 after graduating from Kyoto Women's University in Japanese literature. She published her first story, ''Noren'' (1957), a st ...

) () * ''The History of Japanese Literature'' (Toyoko Yamasaki) () * ''

Karei-naru Ichizoku is a 1973 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1974 and then three times as a television series in 1974, 2007, and 2021. Plot Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the show explores the struggle for p ...

'' (Toyoko Yamasaki) () * ''

The Old Capital is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata first published in 1962. It was one of three novels cited by the Nobel Committee in their decision to award Kawabata the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature. ''The Old Capital'' was first translated ...

'' (Takiji Kobayashi) () * (Takiji Kobayashi) () * (Takiji Kobayashi) () * ''

The House of the Sleeping Beauties ''House of the Sleeping Beauties'' is a 1961 novella by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. It is a story about a lonely man, Old Eguchi, who continuously visits the House of the Sleeping Beauties in hope of something more. Plot The titular ...

'' (Takiji Kobayashi) ()

Awards

* ''

'' – 1st National Book Award *

Chinese Translation Association The Translators Association of China (TAC) () is a national association for translation studies in China. Founded in the 1980s TAC was part of the academic response to the national Economic Reform in 1978. The incumbent President of TAC's 6th Ex ...

– Competent Translator (2004)

Personal life

In 1956, Tang married her middle school sweetheart

in Beijing, he was also a translator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Yuemei 1931 births People from Ho Chi Minh City Hoa people Vietnamese emigrants to China Peking University alumni Japanese–Chinese translators Living people 20th-century Chinese translators 21st-century Chinese translators