China and the West

Lanmu, Cha'ersi [Lamb, Charles]. Yingguo shi ren yin bian yan yu [ID D10417].
Lin Shu's translation of Tales from Shakespeare contains twenty stories based on the Bard's plays, it was the second earliest introduction of Shakespearean works into China.
Lin Shu schreibt im Vorwort : "When the Europeans criticize our country, they usually say that China is becoming increasingly weak and ill-fated because she is narrow in her view of the world, outdated in her thinking, allowing her past to dominate her present, and too fond of gods, fairies, ghosts, and demons. The young and audacious in our country are going all out for reform and change. They embrace only the new, mocking the old tradition and practice and discarding past history and heritage.
There are certainly justifications in what these people are doing. But, if they think that all things Western are new to China, they are wrong, for it would be like glorifying somebody by exaggerating his merits or destroying somebody by magnifying his faults. Aren't Hardy and Shakespeare literary giants of the great civilized England ? Look at Hardy's books that I have translated ; there are taboo snakes and condemned ghosts all over the place. Shakespeare's poetry is quite comparable to that of our [great poet] Du Fu, but he often conjures up images of gods, fairies, ghosts, and demons. If the Westerners are so civilized, then maybe these works mentioned should be banned and burned so as not to interfere with scientific knowledge. As far as I know, however, Shakespeare's poetry is held in high esteem among the well bred [in the West]. There his works are not only read and recited in every household but also performed in theaters, where men and women are moved to tears as they hold each other's hands listening to every word, where no one is ever tempted to call him old-fashioned or accuse him of having a fetish about gods, fairies, ghosts, and demons. Why is this the case ? Certainly, many old things are useless today, for example, the cooking vessels and drinking cups from the Bronze Age, heavy and rust eaten. But no expense should be spared to obtain, preserve, and display, say, a distinguished suit of armor once worn by a great personage from an illustrious family. People who are affluent and not troubled by the material needs of everyday life turn their interest to the past in pursuit of new personal enrichment. This is just like what [Su] Dongpo said, that when one has had enough rich meats and fine grains he starts to miss the snails and clams [of the old days].
Running a country and educating its people are two important matters that do not depend on arts and literature. When all is well with the country and its people, good arts and literature can add more luster; but when good arts and literature is all a country has, they do not benefit either the governing or educating. That's why the Westerners make government and education their priorities, gathering wealth and building military strength. They are so rich and powerful that no outsiders dare to humiliate them. It is only then they begin to enjoy arts and literature in their leisure time. Maybe Mr. Hardy and Mr. Shakespeare are old-fashioned and using gods, fairies, ghosts, and demons too much, but the civilized Westerners are certainly not complaining.
I am old, and I do not use the same language as Hardy and Shakespeare, but I am particularly fond of these two gentlemen's works. My good friend Mr. Wei Chunshu, from Renhe [Hangzhou, Zhejiang] —young, erudite, and a master of Western languages—and I teamed up to do translations at the Translation Studio of the Jingshi Daxuetang (Capital University). After Mr. Wei orally translated the works to me, I put them into [Chinese] literary form. In about two years we translated about three or four works, of which the most massive one is the Biography of Napoleon. We are about to graduate from the studio early this coming autumn. When free one night, Mr. Wei picked up some Shakespeare by chance; I started scribbling away by the night lamp. Twenty days later we have a book of Shakespeare's poetic tales.
The British certainly embrace new ideas in running their country, but they do not discard Shakespeare's poetry. Now that I have translated the book of Shakespeare's poetic tales, won't those blievers in new things reject it ?
There are some different versions of Shakespeare's poetic tales coming into our country. There are similarities and differences in the selections of tales as well as in the contents of actual tales themselves. My book contains bwenty tales, each of which has a new title by me for the purpose of highlighting."

Tian Han schreibt : "The novels translated by Lin Qinnan [Lin Shu] were very popular then and they were also my favourite type of publication. I was really interested in Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare which was translated als 'English poet, reciting from afar on joyous occasions'. I've been unconsciously influenced by this book. I read The tempest, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet in the originals when I grew up, but it seemed to me that Lin's way of telling these stories as fairy tales was more appealing."

Li Ruru : Lin Shu adapted his Tales into Chinese. Taking the extract quoted earlier as an example, his version, compared to the original account by the Lambs, is tinged with more personal feelings evoked through the use of dialogue. His style is influenced by traditional Chinese story telling, which alternates freely and frequently between firs-person expression and third-person narration and commentary.