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 Shapiro was born in New York in 1915 and first came to China
in 1947, having been selected by the U.S. army to learn Chinese
during World War Two.
He married a Chinese actress who was a supporter of the
Communist Party, which at the time was fighting a civil war with
the Nationalists, and did not visit the United States again
until 1971.
He remained in China after the Communist revolution in 1949,
when many Western foreigners left, and became a Chinese citizen
in 1963 - an honor reserved only for a select few foreigners
judged to have performed special services for China.
He was best known for his English translations of the Chinese
classic novel "Outlaws of the Marsh", as well as works by the
more modern authors Ba Jin and Mao Dun.
"Translators like us have the responsibility to let the world
know that China has the richest tradition of virtue," he told
the official Xinhua news agency in 2010, after being bestowed a
lifetime achievement award by the Translators Association of
China.
Better known in China by his Chinese name, Sha Boli, he was
appointed in 1983 to the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, a largely ceremonial but high profile advisory body
to parliament.
He lost none of his fire in the later part of his life,
lambasting the United States in 2006 following one of the State
Department's regular criticisms of China's human rights.
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"Democracy in America, which was won by the public through long-time
struggle, had started going downhill in the 20th century," Xinhua
quoted him as saying on the sidelines of that year's annual meeting
of parliament.
"In the States today, the intelligence agencies have even got the
power to tap citizens' phone calls and inquire what books a person
is borrowing from the library," he said.
However, he never joined the Communist Party, unlike some other
Westerners who were equally committed to the cause of modern China.
"I was still too much of a maverick, reluctant to accept any
organizational strictures or discipline. But I had the greatest
respect for the Chinese party, and fully supported its principles
and goals," he wrote in his autobiography "I Chose China".
Shapiro died on Saturday morning, just two months short of his 99th
birthday, his granddaughter, Stella Guo, said in an email.
"As his granddaughter, I am blessed with so many memories - his
quirky humor, wonderful stories, great taste in music, appreciation
for old movies, his American-Jewish heritage, energetic debates,
love of new technology and so much more," she wrote.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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