Gladys Yang
Encyclopedia
Gladys Yang was a British
translator of Chinese literature
, the wife of another noted translator Yang Xianyi
. Her father was a missionary to China, and she herself became a lover of Chinese culture since her childhood.
Born in Peking as Gladys Tayler, she returned to England as a child, and became Oxford's first graduate in Chinese in 1940. She met Yang at Oxford. After their marriage, the Beijing-based couple became prominent translators of Chinese literature into British English
during the latter half of the twentieth century at the Foreign Languages Press
.
The couple was imprisoned during the cultural revolution. Late in life they spoke out against the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Their biography has been officially banned in China as a result. Gladys Yang died in Beijing
in 1999, aged 80.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
translator of Chinese literature
Chinese literature
Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
, the wife of another noted translator Yang Xianyi
Yang Xianyi
Yang Xianyi was a Chinese translator, known for rendering many ancient and a few modern Chinese classics into English, including Dream of the Red Chamber....
. Her father was a missionary to China, and she herself became a lover of Chinese culture since her childhood.
Born in Peking as Gladys Tayler, she returned to England as a child, and became Oxford's first graduate in Chinese in 1940. She met Yang at Oxford. After their marriage, the Beijing-based couple became prominent translators of Chinese literature into British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
during the latter half of the twentieth century at the Foreign Languages Press
Foreign Languages Press
The name Foreign Languages Press was given to two publishing houses, respectively in the Soviet Union and in the People's Republic of China.-Moscow Foreign Languages Press:...
.
The couple was imprisoned during the cultural revolution. Late in life they spoke out against the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Their biography has been officially banned in China as a result. Gladys Yang died in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
in 1999, aged 80.