RSC initiative

The Beijing-based Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press has just come out with a new complete version, supported by the British Council.

The bilingual format uses an English-language edition originally authorized by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Chinese translations by eminent scholars including Xu Yuanchong.

In recent months, the RSC has also launched its own initiative to translate a new Chinese version specially tailored for the stage.

Another sorely needed Chinese translation for the purpose of title projection, which should adhere to the Bard's mantra that "brevity is the soul of wit", would help greatly with touring productions in the original tongue, but has not made it to the agendas of translators or sponsors so far.

The most influential version to date is the one by Zhu Shenghao (1911-44), who completed work on 31 of the plays under the direst of circumstances, including poor health and the Japanese invasion of China (he lost his translation manuscripts more than once to Japanese fires).

His genius in capturing the essence of the Bard's work could be the single most important factor in making Shakespeare accessible to one-fifth of the world's population.

Liang Shiqiu (1902-87) is so far the only Chinese who has translated every piece credited to Shakespeare. But his version is less literary and more verbatim, thus suitable for textual research for non-English speakers. Liang's version was republished this month by Penguin.

Fang Ping (1921-2008) was responsible for much of the first complete version that replicated the verse form.

Considering the difficulty of translating the Bard's lines, not to mention the ambiguity of some words, there will be no shortage of Chinese translators taking on this daunting task. According to Lu Gusun, a professor of English language at Fudan University in Shanghai, as many as three Chinese versions of Hamlet appeared before 1949, and more have seen the light of day since.