Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t48: LI Yuanshan
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t48
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LI Yuanshan
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Li Yuanshan (January 31, 1942 - October 3, 2006), was a Chinese scholar in Bengali language and was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. He was a proficient translator of the Bengali Department of China Radio International (CRI), and was specially-appointed as a professor of Bengali at the Beijing
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Li Yuanshan
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Broadcasting Institute, (now Communication University of China).
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Li Yuanshan’s uncle, Li Liangmin was an expert Chinese translator who had translated ‘*The Gadfly*’, ‘*Spartacus*’ and many other full-length novels. Under the influence of Li Liangmin, Li Yuanshan became interested in foreign literature and translation. In July 1959, he graduated from the No.1 Middle School in Hangzhou City, and joined the Beijing Foreign Studies University, which is now known as the Peking Foreign Language Institute to study Russian. Between September 1960 and July 1963, he studied Bengali in the Department of Oriental Languages of Leningrad State University, (now St Petersburg University). In September 1963, he began a course in Bengali at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute and taught the language. Later, he served as team leader in Bengali till 1976. During this period, he was engaged by the Beijing Foreign Languages Press to work as a Bengali translator. In February 1976, he was transferred to CRI and thereafter, has worked as the Principal of the Bengali group, Deputy Director of the third Asian department, as Chief Correspondent stationed abroad, as a first-grade translator of Bengali and specially-appointed Professor of Beijing Broadcasting Institute. He was also once elected as a member of the first council of Translators Association of China. ‘*Practical Bengali Grammar*’ (2003) and ‘*Bengali Tutorial*’ (2003, collaborative compilation) written by him represent the first set of teaching materials of the Bengali language formally published in China.
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He spent his lifetime on cultivating people in Bengali language, translating and spreading Bengali. He founded the first undergraduate programme of Bengali in China and taught undergraduate students for many years. He translated altogether 300,000 words of Rabindranath Tagore’s works. He was one of the main translators of the ‘*Collected Works of Tagore*’ and ‘*Complete Translation of Tagore’s Novels*’, and the latter has become the first book of Tagore directly translated from Bengali.
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(*Zhang Xing*)