Jane Chui Chun Lai

Biography

Jane Lai studied at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Bristol. She taught English Literature and Translation at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University for many years until her retirement in 2004, and is now Emeritus Professor, Honorary Professor of Translation and Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Translation at Hong Kong Baptist University. In 1978, she and her friends founded the Seals Theatre Company. She is also one of the founding members of the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies and the International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong). She has a long association with the Hong Kong theatre scene, mainly in the area of translation of playscripts for performance. Plays translated included those by Shakespeare, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and Jean Genet. She recently translated for performance by Seals Players Three Sisters (2007) by Anton Chekhov and Othello (2008) by William Shakespeare. She is also a proficient literary translator of Chinese and English poetry and essays, and has translated works of local authors including Ye Si and Xiao Si into English, published in Renditions and other publications. She edited Translation Criticism and Appreciation (in Chinese, 1996), and co-edited (with Martha P.Y. Cheung) and translated (with Martha P.Y. Cheung and others) An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama (1997). She translated (with Martha P.Y. Cheung) 100 Excerpts from Zen Buddhist Texts (1997), (with Martha P.Y. Cheung and others) Hong Kong Collage: Contemporary Stories and Writing (1998), “Jane Lai Drama Translation Series” (21 volumes, 2005, 2006 & 2010) and (with Li Guoqing) Selected Works of Ba Jin (III): The Cross of Love and other Stories (2005).

Research Interest

Chinese and English poetry