Xu Yuanchong

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Xu Yuanchong gives a lecture on poetic translation in Beijing on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014.

Xu Yuanchong (许渊冲), born April 18, 1921, is a professor with Peking University and a distinguished Chinese literature translator. He is known for his outstanding translation of works of ancient poets into English and French.

Xu translated Chairman Mao Zedong's poems into the two languages after 1958. In addition, Xu was also involved in the translation of many British and French literary works into Chinese, including Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Xu is now working on the complete works of Shakespeare.

Having translated over 100 books, Xu said the beauty of translation comes from linguistic equivalence and cultural resemblance rather than from literal accuracy. He believed that the result of one plus one should be bigger than two in literature, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Xu was awarded a lifetime achievement in translation prize by the Translators Association of China (TAC) in 2010.

On Aug. 22, 2014, Xu received the Aurora Borealis Fiction Award issued by the Federation of International Translators (FIT). He has been the first Asian winner of the prize since it was introduced in 1999.