Wusun Lin ’51

Wusun Lin ’51, former director of the China Foreign Languages Bureau and head of Beijing Weekly News, died on January 27, 2021, in Beijing. The Beijing Weekly News reported his death in these words: “On the afternoon of January 27 the sky bowed his head and the cold wind wailed. My heart burst into tears.” Wusun was one of the founders of the English-language Weekly News in 1958 and went on to preside over its operations. Its mission: explaining China to the world. He wrote two memoirs: Exciting Years, describing the publication’s early growth, and The Birth of a Magazine, detailing its founding at the urging of then-Premier Zhou Enlai. Wusun also served as executive vice president of the Chinese Translators Association, editor-in-chief of Chinese Translation magazine, director of the Foreign Languages Bureau, consultant to the China Translation Association, and director of the European and American Student Association in China. He received a lifetime achievement award for his many contributions to translation culture. During his years in the United States at Lawrenceville School and Dartmouth in the 1940s and 1950s he was known as Pete Wu-Sun Lin. Upon returning to China, he reverted to his given name, Lin Wusun.