Guru of literary Translation Yang Xianyi passes away

At 6am on November 23 Yang Xianyi - a Chinese literary translation guru, well-known translator, poet, foreign literature expert, and scholar in literary history - died at the age of 95. Guangzhou Daily immediately contacted Yang's good friends Shao Yanxiang and Li Hui, author of the book "Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang", who confirmed the news and expressed their mourning in interviews.

Shao Yanxiang, a good friend of Yang's, said in an exclusive interview with Guangzhou Daily that Yang is the best literary translator in China in terms of both quality and quantity. "As Yang's condition fluctuated between good and bad, we as his friends, were all painfully aware that it was unlikely he would survive the year. I have composed poems with him for years. He did not stop composing poems until his wife passed away. He also wrote an elegy after his mood improved and hoped to live as long as his mother who died at 96."

The English version of the Chinese novel "A Dream of Red Mansions"  translated by Yang Xianyi  and his wife Gladys Yang.

Yang Xianyi and his British wife Gladys Yang