Mei Yi (Chinese: 梅益; 2 January 1913 – 13 September 2003) was a Chinese translator, journalist and politician. In 1938 he translated the English version of How the Steel Was Tempered, which was the earliest Chinese version.[1]
Biography
ROC era
Mei was born Chen Shaoqing in Xiangqiao District of Chaozhou, Guangdong, on January 2, 1913, to Chen Yansheng (陈彦生), a boatman. He primarily studied at Chengnan Primary School and secondary studied at Shantou Jinshan Middle School. In the summer of 1932, Mei went to Peiping alone, looking for revolutionary organizations and studying English by himself in the Beijing Library. He started to publish works in 1934. At the beginning of 1935, Mei joined the Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers and went to Shanghai in the autumn of the same year to teach at a private high school, but he was expelled from the school soon because he let the students in his class take part in the demonstration. Mei joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1937. After Shanghai was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, he served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Translation. In September 1940 he was accepted to Hangchow University.[2] From 1942 to 1945, he served in the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau of the CCP. From 1945 to 1946, he served as Secretary of the Shanghai Cultural Committee of the CCP and spokesman of the delegation of the party in Nanjing in 1946. From 1947 to 1949, he served as deputy editor-in-chief of Yan'an and Taihang Branch Office of the Xinhua News Agency.[3][4]
PRC era
After the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, he became deputy director-general and then director-general and secretary of the CCP committee of the Central Broadcasting Bureau. In 1957, he was elected vice-president of the All-China Journalists Association.[4]
