Written on the desk of Sidney Shapiro is the Italian phrase
"traduttore e tradittore"-"the translator is a traitor". For this
US-born translator of some of China's most important literary
classics, it would be more accurate to say: "The translator is the
story".
Born and raised in a Jewish family in New York, Shapiro arrived
in Shanghai in 1947, where he intended to set up a legal practice,
but instead, he came to Beijing, witnessed Chairman Mao Zedong's
proclamation of the founding of the People's Republic of China on
October 1, 1949, and became part of the historical events unfolding
over the next six decades.
Shapiro lives a busy life in Beijing as he receives a fairly
steady stream of visitors from East and West.
Sidney Shapiro enjoys a
busy life in Shichahai, downtown Beijing.
"People from every corner of the world come to visit me asking
questions on every conceivable topic related to China, from China's
internal and international policies to everyday life," Shapiro
says.
He also replies to the many e-mails he receives every day.
"I enjoy the busy life. Everyday is different-meeting guests,
delivering lectures, attending conferences, receiving media
interviews and writing and traveling," Shapiro says.
Serving voluntarily as a non-governmental diplomat, Shapiro, who
was jokingly admired among his friends as "one of the best PR
(public relation) men China ever has", has helped foreigners better
understand how things have happened in China.
"I hope to continue doing my bit of impact as a particle in the
centrifuge that created one of the most momentous changes in
Chinese history. I am lucky to have the opportunity."
In a small compound near Shichahai Lake of downtown Beijing, the
93-year-old who became a Chinese citizen in 1963 feeds stray cats
and tends flowers and plants every day at his home yard.
He loves to see the cats lying idly on window sills and the
trees and plants swaying in the wind, which remind him of his wife
Phoenix, a Chinese actress, who passed away in 1996 at the age of
84.
"Phoenix loved flowers and animals. Every spring when the first
rose budded, we kept going into the garden to admire them," he
says.
Their romance witnessed the ebbs and flows of Chinese history in
recent half century.
Shapiro met Phoenix in Shanghai in 1947. She was doing the
dangerous underground revolutionary work of the Chinese Communist
Party and Shapiro became involved, helping her peers edit
revolutionary publications and hide people blacklisted by the
Kuomintang, for persecution.
They got married in 1948 and attempted to reach the Liberated
Areas from Shanghai. But they were stopped by Kuomintang troops and
then they entered Beijing and greeted the founding of New China in
1949.
During the American aggression against Korea in the 1950s,
Phoenix refused to speak to Shapiro for a week because he is an
American.
"I hate the American imperialists, I hate the Americans! And my
husband is an American! I was utterly miserable," Phoenix wrote in
her memoir.
"But Sha Boli (Shapiro's Chinese name) loved me, loved our home
and loved new China even more. He had seen it built on the wreckage
of the old society. He had shared the fruits of the life and work
of a people who had risen to their feet. He stood firmly on the
side of China. He unquestionably was a staunch friend of the
Chinese people," she wrote.
During the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-76), Phoenix was kept
under house arrest for four years and their daughter Yamei, who
worked in a suburban factory, seldom came home. Shapiro had to do
all of the housework himself.
"I learned to make two dishes, my specialties-tomato with eggs,
and eggs with tomato," he jokes.
But the dark days did yield one accidental good result-since few
writers dared touch pen, Shapiro was asked to translate Outlaws
of the Marsh, one of the most important ancient Chinese
novels.
Living in the scenic lake area, Shapiro often strolls around the
lake in the mornings and evenings. Shapiro remembers that when he
first moved into his house 40 years ago, the hutong was lined with
big trees and beautiful ancient architecture was everywhere.
"Although there was no proper sewage disposal and sanitation
like we have today, people were happy. Everybody knew everybody and
kids played soccer and games on the lane after school," he
recalls.
But now, they have no place to play as the lanes are jammed with
vehicles. Some trees and old houses were pulled down to pave way
for new buildings.
"There is a contradiction between the development and support of
the Earth with the livelihood and ordinary daily life of local
people," he says.
Shapiro expresses concern that many have placed morality and
ethics on the back burner amid the drive to create wealth.
"Many interpreted the dictum that getting rich was not bad as
meaning that any way you got rich was good, that you didn't have to
be fussy about how," he says, adding that "crime graft and
corruption grew. There was a flourishing of old vices, and a few
new ones invented".
"To antiquated concepts left over from feudal society, the
'advanced civilizations' of the outside world were able to
contribute twists made more interesting by their advanced
technologies.
"When concern was voiced about this new foreign invasion,
nonchalant freewheelers quoted Deng Xiaoping. Hadn't he said: 'When
you open the window it doesn't matter if a few flies get in'?
"True enough, but he hadn't said you needn't swat the flies that
did get in."
After his retirement from the China International Publishing
Group in 1982, he began his new job as a member of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's
top advisory body.
To better understand the country's situation, he, along with
other CPPCC members, makes inspections and investigations down the
grass roots across the country almost every year.
The outspoken man has put forward dozens of proposals to correct
improper administrative measures of the government and suggestions
to improve people's lives.
"Although we have no administrative power, we are very
influential. We discussed matters of national importance,
reflecting people's views," Shapiro says.
His latest suggestion was to urge local tourist departments to
improve supervision of tourist pedicabs in hutong of the scenic
Shichahai Lake area.
Since the pedicab tours started a few years ago, local residents
had complained that they regularly sped and often parked in the
entrance of narrow lanes.
He has raised the question at the CPPCC meetings and his
proposal has reached Xicheng district government. Now the hutong
tours are under better management and are running more
smoothly.
Shapiro lives with his daughter. In the eyes of his
granddaughter Stella, who received 10 years education in the United
States, Shapiro is just "an ordinary grandpa".
"I have never thought that my grandpa is a foreigner, he is just
a kind and caring grandpa," she says. "I thank my grandpa for
giving me an opportunity to understand US culture, which has
widened my horizons and career opportunities."
Stella, who works for a foreign-funded PR company in Beijing,
married an American college classmate last year in Beijing.
Stella and her husband live in the courtyard and their home is
just in the backyard of Shapiro's.
"Whatever Chinese or Americans, Jews or Han people, Communist or
non-Communist, we live together happily," Shapiro says. "We would
like to be internationalist, do good to the society and to the
world regardless of which country we belong to."
(China Daily February 4, 2008)
