Fou Lei (1908 〜 1966) was a famous translator who introduced works of French literature into China. Among these works, Romain Rolland's Jean Christophe is the most popular. It was published during the anti-Japanese war, and Chinese people were encouraged by its humanism.

　Fou Lei, one of the intellectuals who were worrying about their nation's future, had much sympathy with the “hero's” spirit described in Rolland's works. When he first read The Life of Beethoven (Vie de Beethoven) during his stay in France as a student in the late ’20s, he was strongly impressed with Beethoven's sheer willpower. From that time on, Beethoven became his role model. Fou Lei also translated Rolland’s works into Chinese in order to enlighten Chinese people.

　Christophe, an ideal “hero” created by Rolland, was a symbol of the peace and harmony in Europe. At that time, Fou Lei compared his son Fou Ts’ong, who is now a famous pianist in London, to Christophe. He expected his son to realize his ideal that the civilizations of the East and the West would be harmonized. He hoped that, as a Chinese, Fou Ts’ong would contribute to the progress of western music.

　But in 1958, Fou Lei became a victim of the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and Jean-Christophe was severely criticized as literature with bourgeois taste. In his later years, Fou Lei preferred the realism of Balzac to the idealism of Rolland. The fact that Fou Lei finally lost his ideal represented the disappointment of Chinese intellectuals with their government. Fou Lei killed himself when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966.