Mei Shaowu

Mei Shaowu (; 22 December 1928 – 28 September 2005) was a Chinese translator, author and scholar who was honorary president of the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall and president of the Mei Lanfang Literature and Art Research Association . He also was a researcher in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Mei was the first person from China to translate the works of the American novelist Vladimir Nabokov to Chinese language.

Mei was a member of the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Biography Mei was born Mei Baozhen in December 1928 in Beijing, with his ancestral home in Taizhou, Jiangsu, the son of Fu Zhifang , a Beijing opera actress, and Mei Lanfang, also a Beijing opera actor. His elder brother, Mei Baochen (1925 - 2008), an architect who was graduated from Aurora University. His younger brother, Mei Baojiu, a Beijing opera actor, was born in 1934. His younger sister, Mei Baoyue (1930 - 2000), a Beijing opera actress who graduated from Aurora University.

Mei primarily studied in Shanghai.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Mei Lanfang escaped from Beijing and settled in Hong Kong, Mei and his brother attended Lingnan Secondary School .

When Hong Kong was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, Mei went to Guiyang, Guizhou, he studied at Qinghua High School .

Mei entered Hangchow University in 1946, majoring in engineering at the Department of Engineering.

In 1947, Mei was admitted to Yenching University, majoring in English at the Department of Western Languages, he took French and German as elective courses. After graduating in 1952 he was appointed to the Beijing Library , then he was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Beijing opera and Mei Lanfang My Father: Mei Lanfang

Translations A Hungarian Nabob (Jokai Mor) Poetry of Pottier (Eugene Pottier) Puning (Vladimir Nabokov) Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov) Salem Witch (Arthur Miller) The Thin Man (Dashiell Hammett) The Selected Works of Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle)

Awards National Book Award Chinese Translation Association – Competent Translator (2004)

Personal life Mei married translator Tu Zhen in 1956 in Beijing, she was a graduate of Peking University, where she majored in French language.