Sidney Shapiro in an inverview with CCTV. [File photo]

Sidney Shapiro, born in New York in 1915 of Jewish ancestry, has been living and working in China as a translator, writer, and a scholar on Chinese issues for about half a century.

 

In 1947, having studied Chinese for only nine months, he came to China as an American lawyer and married a Chinese girl. He adopted Chinese nationality in 1963. Working at the Foreign Language Press, he translated a series of Chinese literary masterpieces such as Outlaws of the Marsh.

 

Since 1983,  he has served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), or China's top political advisory body.