Cao Jinghua Letter Collection

Author: Zhang Yu/Tie Feng (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1991-08-01
Features: Cao Jinghua (1897–1987), originally named Cao Lianya, pseudonym Yadan, alias Ruzhen. Born in Luши, Henan. A renowned Soviet literature scholar, translator, and prose writer. In 1921, he studied at the Moscow Oriental University and returned to China by the end of the year, auditing at Peking University. In 1923, he joined the Northern Expedition and served as an interpreter for the Soviet military advisor General Galen. After the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, he went to the Soviet Union again. He taught at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University of the Toilers and the Leningrad Oriental Language Institute. In 1928, he returned to China and taught at the Women's College of Arts and Sciences of Peking University, Northeastern University, and China University. In 1938, he moved to Chongqing and served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Soviet Anti-War Literature Translation Series published by the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association. In 1948, he joined Tsinghua University as a professor. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as a professor and director of the Department of Russian at Peking University, a member of the National Federation of Literature and Art Circles, a secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers' Association, an honorary council member of the Chinese Translation Association, an honorary president of the Chinese Society of Foreign Literature and the Soviet Literature Research Society, an advisor to the Lu Xun Museum, an advisor to the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association, and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1956. In August 1987, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union awarded him the Order of Friendship Among Peoples. Professor Cao Jinghua was an outstanding revolutionary litterateur in China, a close friend of Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai, a pioneer in introducing Soviet literature to China since the May Fourth Movement, and one of the renowned translators, prose writers, and educators both domestically and internationally. Respected and esteemed, he was a towering figure in the field of Soviet literature translation in China. He also trained many Russian language talents in China and made contributions, together with Soviet sinologists, to the establishment of the new Sinology school in the Soviet Union. His translated works include Iron Stream, The Sisters, Defending Tsaritsyn, I Am the Son of the Working People, among others. His prose works include Cao Jinghua's Prose Collection, Flowers, Spring City Flying Flowers, and Collected Works of Cao Jinghua's Translations. This book collects the letters of the cultural giant Cao Jinghua from the 1920s to the late 1980s.