The Chinese translation of Kahlil Gibran’s English biography Kahlil Gibran; His Life and World was published by China Social Science Publishing House in July 2016. The translator Dr. Zheng Ma is a researcher of Kahlil Gibran. In 2006, she completed “The Literary Study of Kahlil Gibran in the Western Context” which was the first doctoral thesis on Kahlil Gibran in Chinese scholarship. Through a thorough investigation on the historical, cultural, and spiritual connections of Gibran’s literary works with the Western contexts, the thesis challenged the simplified and ideological narrative of the eastern identity of Khalil Gibran that was dominant in the Chinese academy. Four years later, the monograph “The Study of Kahlil Gibran from the Intercultural Perspective” was published and commented as "the most comprehensive and in-depth" study on Kahlil Gibran in Chinese scholarship. Dr. Zheng Ma cherishes the historical value of the biography based on the first-hand stories, photos, and documents endeavored by the authors Jean Gibran and Kahlil G.
Gibran. In this life-long work, a great deal of letters, paintings, manuscripts, and life details are uncovered for the first time for Chinese readers. Dr. Zheng Ma believes
that the publication of this Chinese translation of the biography will provide a foundation for enhancing further biographical writings, academic research, and the readership of Kahlil Gibran in China. Dr. Zheng Ma is grateful for the support of Mrs. Li, Bingqing, who was the initiator and publisher of the Chinese translation of Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World and the book The Study of Kahlil Gibran from the Intercultural Perspective. Both of them, as a publisher and a translator/researcher, are among the millions of Chinese fans of Kahlil Gibran. They worked together on the translation copyright, translation revision, and book publicity from 2011 to 2016. Wenyibao, one of the earliest and best
newspapers of literature and arts in China, published the news of the publication in 2016. The introduction of the biography was published in the Journal Middle Eastern Study of Peking University. Dr. Zheng Ma appreciates the generous support of this translation work from Professor Suheil Bushrui when she was invited to the Kahlil Gibran Chair at the University of Maryland, USA from June 2013 to May 2014. She noted that the historical research of the biography “His Life and World” also laid the basis for the biography Man and Poet: Kahlil Gibran: A New Biography authored by Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins which is one of the most in-depth biographical writings on Kahlil Gibran from the lens of philosophy and civilization dialogue. In her new project “The Study of Arab American Literature" which has been granted by the National Social Science Fund of China, Dr. Zheng Ma explored the internal relevance of the biographical writings of Kahlil Gibran with the evolution of Arab American experience through an in-depth analysis of three biographical writings Kahlil Gibran: A Biography (Mikhail Naimy, Arabic,1934; English,1950), Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World and Man and Poet: Kahlil Gibran: A new Biography. International Khalil Gibran researchers from Australia, the United States, Curacao, and Lebanon sent messages to congratulate the publication of the Chinese translation of Khalil Gibran: His Life and World. Among them, Dr. Henri Zoghab who is the Lebanese author of the biography Kahlil Gibran: People and Places tells the value of the biography: Congratulations for this huge work you achieved. This Jean and Kahlil Gibran’s work is by far the best biography that has been ever written. I have a copy of it and I often dive into it to refresh my memory about our Lebanese great Gibran.”
