Lin Shu (1852–1924), courtesy name Qin-nan, was the producer or co-producer of more than 170 Chinese titles, mainly translations of English and French novels. This remarkable achievement is all the more amazing given the fact that he was quite ignorant of any foreign language, forcing him to collaborate with others who knew the source language. His work contributed, for the first time in Chinese history, to systematically introducing Western literature to Chinese readers and influenced at least a whole generation of readers and authors. His work also made it possible for the Commercial Press (1897 to present), the first modern publishing house in China, to make big profits in its early years and survive in the then highly competitive brand-new publishing industry.

References

Baker, Margaret J.

1997 Translated Images of the Foreign in the Early Works of Lin Shu (1852–1924) and Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973): Accommodation and Appropriation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Chatterjee, Partha

1993 The Nation and Its Fragments. Princeton, NJ: University of Princeton Press.

Compton, Robert William

1971 A Study of the Translations of Lin Shu, 1852–1924. PhD thesis Stanford University, Department of Asian Languages.

Gao, Wanlong

2009 Recasting Lin Shu: A Cultural Approach to Literary Translation. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing.

Lee, Leo Ou-fan

1973 The Romantic Generation of Modern Chinese Writers. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.

Liu, Hongzhao

2011 Studies on Lin Shu’s Translation of Novels [in Chinese]. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.

Qian, Zhongshu

1963 On Lin Shu’s Translation [in Chinese]. Beijing: Commercial Press.