| Paul Robeson 保罗·罗伯逊1898——1976）, the great black African-American performing artist, civil rights and peace activist. Born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, Paul Robeson, the son of a runaway black slave, became a world-acclaimed artist. He rose to prominence in a time when segregation was legal in America and black people were being lynched by white mobs, especially in the South. Throughout his life, he advocated freedom and equality among all mankind. Robert Robeson was lucky to be blessed with many talents and was all of these: singer, actor, scholar, athlete, social activist, philosopher, linguist, and lawyer. The late concert singer and stage and film actor used his artistic achievement to spread the aspiration for freedom and equality everywhere in the world. In China, the story of Paul Robeson goes deeper and beyond. To Chinese, the late Paul Robeson is more than a Grammy-winning singer and a Hollywood star. He was a friend of China during the turmoil of the WWII and offered his help against the Japanese aggression in the 1930s and 1940s. Robeson sang the songs of the world's people in their own languages. He came to be conversant in 20 languages, and fluent in 12. Paul Robeson was the first foreign singer who sang the Chinese song "Chee Lai" in Chinese in the United States and the world over. This song was written in 1935 by the famous Chinese progressive playwright Tian Han 田汉and it was Nie Er 聂耳the young musician who composed the song. In ... |
