The hardest times were during the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976). Phoenix was then the chief editor of a magazine produced by the Chinese Dramatists Association. In early 1969 she was accused of being a participant in the "evil" arts of the 1930s and was forced to live at her office. Later that year she was sent to a small rural settlement, known as a May Seventh Cadre School, where she was detained until June 1974.

Meanwhile, Yamei and most of her schoolmates became members of the "Red Guards." Shapiro says their group trips were a bit like a "permanent girl or boy scout jamboree." Unfortunately, the failure of many teenagers to continue their education ended up stunting a whole generation. Yamei was one of the more fortunate ones. After she finished middle school in 1969, she was assigned to work in a paper mill in Tongxian, about 50 miles from Beijing. She worked there for three years and then, as a member of the proletariat, was able to enter medical school to study Western and Chinese medicine.

Today Sidney Shapiro is on the boards of directors of the Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the Chinese Translators Association; he also belongs to the Chinese Writers Association. For 30 years he translated Chinese literature into English. Among his translations are Ba Jin's The Family, Qu Bo's Tracks in the Snowy Forest, Shi Yan's It Happened in Willow Castle, Zhao Shuli's The Marriage of Young Blacky, and Mao Dun's collection of short stories, Spring Silkworms. But, Shapiro's masterpiece, which he completed during the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) was the translation of the three-volume Song Dynasty epic, Outlaws of the Marsh.

Shapiro calls Outlaws of the Marsh "a smashing yarn, a kind of Chinese Robin Hood - but definitely not for the kiddies." He planned to title the translation Heroes of the Marsh, which he thought more appealing than the literal Chinese title, Marsh Chronicles. But Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, opposed the word "heroes." Shapiro was in no position to oppose the wishes of this woman he calls "the Lady Macbeth of the 'Cultural Revolution' (1966-1976)," so he suggested the word "outlaws." Jiang Qing did not realize "outlaw" can have a positive connotation in English, and thus approved the alternate title.

The book was published by China's Foreign Languages Press and included Ming Dynasty woodcuts that had illustrated the 15th century Chinese edition. Indiana University Press published the book in the United States. In January 1995, the Chinese Literature Foundation awarded Sidney Shapiro one of two prizes for translations from Chinese into English for Outlaws of the Marsh.

In 1972, Shapiro was transferred to work for the magazine China Pictorial, from which he finally retired in 1983 at the age of 67. In 1979, he broke new ground by writing his first original work, the autobiographical book, An American in China: Thirty Years in the People's Republic. It was published by New World Press in Beijing and the New American Library in New York.

One of the most significant changes Shapiro has witnessed firsthand has been China's struggle to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. In 1981, the New World Press published his book, Experiment in Sichuan, which describes the beginnings of economic reform in China.

Because of Shapiro's Jewish heredity, friends encouraged him to research Judaism in China. He translated, edited and complied 12 essays by prominent scholars. His book Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars was published in 1984 by Hippocrene in New York. It appeared in Hebrew translation in Israel in 1987.

Shapiro's next project was based on his legal training. He translated a collection of Chinese dramas with feudal criminal law themes, which he combined with treatises by two Chinese legal experts, one contemporary and one from the 13th century, to trace the evolution of criminal law in China. This book is titled The Law and Lore of Chinese Criminal Justice and it was published in both Beijing and Singapore.

In 1990, Shapiro began a biography of the American medical doctor, Dr. George Hatem who, before his death in 1988, had been Shapiro's best American friend in China. In 1993, Cypress Press in San Francisco published Ma Haide: The Saga of American Doctor George Hatem in China.

A collection of Shapiro's favorite translations was recently published by Panda Books, a subsidiary of Beijing's Foreign Languages Publication Administration Bureau. The book is titled A Sampler of Chinese Literature from the Ming Dynasty to Mao Zedong.

Shapiro's latest work, My China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man, was published by New World Press in Beijing in 1997. It covers 80 years of his life, with special emphasis on his 50 years in China.

In 1983, Shapiro was appointed to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's highest national advisory body, where he is attached to the News and Publications Committee.

Shapiro enjoys this work and finds his fellow committee members "extremely stimulating and informative, because they really are amongst the best in their own profession. They're very well educated and very well informed and express themselves clearly and beautifully. I find I learn an enormous amount from them."

Sidney Shapiro long has been an acute observer and active participant in modern Chinese history. He is an inveterate writer of letters to newspaper editors. Many of his ideas have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and in China's English-language newspaper, China Daily. He has urged the Chinese to adopt tougher anti-smoking policies, to establish standards for domestic and imported television programming, and to learn more about law and legality from the West.

Romanizing the Chinese written language became a particular hobbyhorse of Shapiro; he refers to it as one of the many "lost causes I've championed." Although supported by many respected authorities, romanization has made little progress. Shapiro admits it is "very difficult to have romanization where you don't even have a common pronunciation."

Because Shapiro supports many governmental policies, he has many critics in the West. One university press in the United States, for example, declined to publish his recent autobiography because of his defense of Beijing's policy regarding Tibet.

Shapiro probably is most proud of the small part he has played in "increasing cultural rapprochement between Americans and Chinese." In late 1971, he made his first return trip to the United States. Since then, he has traveled there frequently and has lectured in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK, Israel and the Netherlands.

Sidney Shapiro lives in the same Beijing courtyard house that he has called home since the early 1960s. It is next door to the first stop on a popular, guided tour of the city's old hutongs or back alleys. His beloved Phoenix died in January 1996, at the age of 83, but Yamei and her husband live just behind him. His granddaughter, Xiang, or Stella, now attends university in the United States.

Shapiro continues to participate actively in the metamorphosis of his adopted country. But Sha Boli, as he is known by his neighbors, also enjoys working in his garden. He is especially fond of the morning glories that climb in his front yard and the tulips that grow at the bases of Phoenix's rose bushes.

The author is an English polisher at China Radio International

(China Today NO.2, 1998)