Debra Li

ON April 7 a century ago, a boy was born into a prosperous family near Shanghai. He cried so loudly when he entered this world that his parents named him Lei, the Chinese word for “thunder.”

With no award to glorify him during his lifetime, Fu Lei lived quietly and died a painful suicide during the “Cultural Revolution.” His only halo then was his membership of the Society of Balzac Studies in France.

It was this man, however, who gave Chinese readers access to masters like Honoré de Balzac and Romain Rolland. He also moved generations with family letters to his sons, which were first published as a book in 1981.

In memory of Fu Lei, the National Library of China (NLC) is presenting an exhibition in Beijing that will last until April 22. It will then be shown in other cities including Nanjing, Dalian, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The library has also organized lectures and seminars on the sidelines of the exhibition, dealing with Fu’s life and translation works.

Joining the memorial activities is Fu Cong, eldest son and pride of the translator, who will come to Shenzhen to give a solo concert May 9 dedicated to his late father.

A recital of Fu Lei’s works will be staged during the interval of the piano solo concert, when Fu Cong will play for the first time on the mainland several pieces by Chopin deeply loved by his father.

It was a pity Fu Cong was not present at the opening of the exhibition in Beijing.

“This is so far the largest exhibition to honor Fu Lei,” said Zhan Furui, curator of the NLC. “The exhibits reveal to people his devotion to career, love and loyalty to the motherland and his upright, noble character.”

For 71-year-old Fu Min, the translator’s younger son, this is an invitation to treasure memories. “The moment I entered the exhibition hall, my tears rolled down. There, I saw my childhood crossing into my life again,” he said.

More than 100 manuscripts of Fu’s translations and family letters are being shown, including his well-received renditions of novels like “John Christopher,” “Old Father Goriot,” “Cousin Bette,” “Carmen,” as well as his art reviews, letters to his family and “Huang Binhong Landscapes” he helped to compile.

Among the exhibits there are also family letters he wrote in English using a brush, evidence of Fu Lei being a master of Chinese and foreign languages.

“My son, how I miss you when I think of your face all in smiles…” Fu Lei told his elder son in the first letter he sent him after the young man left for Poland to further his studies. That was Jan. 18, 1954, just one day after Fu Cong left. From there, letters of more than 100,000 characters were sent to his son. These have become a must-read for young Chinese today.

Behind those words, people come to see a loving and wise father who had contributed so much to the growth and development of his sons.

Fu Lei saw precisely the musical talent in his eldest son when the boy was only 4 and cultivated in him a love for arts and humanity studies. He compiled textbooks for Fu Cong and taught the boy himself. Under his supervision, Fu Cong played the piano several hours a day.

A liberal-minded man, the father also did everything to encourage Fu Cong. Once, the boy played a tune of his own during practice and his father noticed. Instead of reproaching him, his father asked him to play it again, took down the score, and named the tune “Spring.”

“Fu Cong is three years my senior. Father saw the difference in us and taught us separately,” Fu Min, the younger son, recalled. “I received my education at school and father advised me to become a teacher,” the young brother said.

For years, this son who inherits more the composed temperament of the father lived with his parents. Thanks to his efforts retrieving the family letters from some 30 years ago, Chinese have the chance to read them.

“Fu Lei’s Family Letters” has been reprinted 19 times and sold more than 1 million copies since it was first published in 1981.

Besides being a loving father, the NLC exhibition also revealed Fu Lei as a trustworthy friend of other artists.

In the fall of 1931, Fu Lei came to know Chinese painting master Huang Binhong when teaching at the Shanghai Fine Arts College. Huang was about the age of his grandfather, but the two became bosom friends. In 1942, attracted by the classical spirit of Huang’s paintings, Fu asked his friends to sponsor an exhibition for Huang, who happily consented. For the first time in his life, the octogenarian master held a solo exhibition in November 1943 in Shanghai. Fu Lei went to help at the show almost every day and wrote reviews so that people could have a better understanding of Huang’s works.

Another contemporary Fu Lei befriended was composer Tan Xiaolin, a talented Chinese musician who also died at a young age. Fu Lei invited Tan’s tutor Schmidt to write the prelude to Tan’s collection of works after the musician died in 1948. When Fu was in trouble during the “Cultural Revolution,” he sent by registered mail Tan’s manuscripts to the then Beijing Library in late 1961, so that they would be better preserved.

Fu Lei

(April 7, 1908-Sept. 3, 1966)

Courtesy name Nu’an, Fu Lei was born near Shanghai and raised by his mother. He studied art and art theory in France from 1928-1932.

Upon his return to China, he taught in Shanghai and worked as a journalist and art critic until he took up translating. His translations, which remain highly regarded, include works by Voltaire, Balzac and Romain Rolland. He developed his own style, the “Fu Lei style,” and his own translation theory.

Although labeled a rightist in 1957, he persevered until 1966, when, at the start of the “Cultural Revolution,” he and his wife committed suicide.