Yiyang Zhuge: Translating Hannah Arendt Across Worlds

 

Yiyang Zhuge translator of Hannah Arendt and Plutarch

At a recent conversation hosted by the Hannah Arendt Center in New York City, Roger Berkowitz interviewed Yiyang Zhuge. Her work represents a remarkable intellectual bridge between languages, traditions, and political worlds. Still a graduate student at Boston College, Zhuge has already emerged as a significant figure in bringing Western political thought—especially the work of Hannah Arendt—to contemporary Chinese readers.

Roger Berkowitz and Yiyang Zhuge

Zhuge’s recent translation of The Human Condition into Mandarin, published this year in China, has already sold 15,000 copies—an impressive number for a dense philosophical text. The year before, her translation of Plutarch’s Moralia reached an even wider audience, with 36,000 copies sold. These numbers suggest not only the quality of her work but also a growing appetite among Chinese readers for classical and modern texts that explore politics, ethics, and the human condition.

Plutrach's Moralia translated from Greek to Mandarin by Yiyang Zhuge

What makes Zhuge’s work even more striking is the path that led her there. She came to the United States at the age of fifteen and attended a private high  school with little knowledge of English. In an environment where she faced social difficulties, language itself became both refuge and passion. She immersed herself in study, mastering not only English but also Greek, Latin, and German. That linguistic range enabled her to translate Arendt not from English but from German.  Arendt wrote her major works in both English and German. Zhuge and Berkowitz mentioned some of the differences between the German and English version of The Human Condition including Arendt’s quotations of German poetry in the edition she wrote in German. 

The Human Condition translated from German to Mandarin by Yiyang Zhuge

Zhuge’s work is not limited to translation. She has built a substantial following through a Mandarin-language YouTube channel where she discusses politics and feminism. In doing so, she participates in a broader intellectual project: creating a space for political thought that crosses cultural and linguistic boundaries. Her translations and public engagement bring thinkers like Arendt into conversation with contemporary Chinese audiences, where questions of authority, freedom, and public life carry particular urgency.

Zhuge's translation of Men in Dark Times will be published later in 2026 

Her current effort to publish a Mandarin translation of Men in Dark Times highlights the challenges of that project. The text, with its reflections on individuals who maintained moral clarity under oppressive conditions, must pass through China’s censorship process. That negotiation itself underscores the stakes of Zhuge’s work. Translation under censorship is not only an intellectual exercise but also a political act.

Zhuge’s story highlights language as a form of freedom. From a teenager struggling to find her place in a new country to a scholar translating some political philosophy from the 20h century and the ancient world, she has turned linguistic mastery into a means of connection and influence. In bringing Arendt into Mandarin, she is not only translating words but opening a space for thought—one that, like Arendt’s own work, insists on the importance of thinking in difficult times.

Fast Tour of Philadelphia and NYC

 

Cliff and I in front of the Customs House in Philadelphia. 

I was showing him where the Tuesdays with Toomey protests were held.

My best friend from the 1970s Army and I made a fast tour of Philadelphia and New York City on Monday and Tuesday this week.  I met Cliff Almes in 1978 in Wiesbaden, West Germany. We were both sergeants in the American millitary community headquarters. We were roommates in 1979 until Cliff left the military and eventually became Bruder Timotheus in a Lutheran monastery in Darmstadt.  

In October and November, Cliff was in the U.S. to visit his family and spent the last five days in Pennsylvania, visiting me Lancaster then Philadelphia and NYC before flying back to Germany.

In Philadelphia we visited the Liberty Bell, the Customs House where I was part of protests against former Senator Pat Toomey for six years as part of Tuesdays with Toomey, my former workplace at the Science History Institute and Independence Mall.

We drove from Philadelphia to New Jersey, taking the ferry from Hoboken to Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. We took a ferry that went north to Port Imperial in Weehauken NJ before turning south, so we saw a lot of Manhattan lit by the late afternoon sun.

When we got to Wall Street, we heard about aPro-Israel protest in Central Park West. It was rush hour. We had to go across town and north. The fastest route was three transfers because of delays on the A Train. We missed the event but talked to a guy leaving the event.

We had dinner with friends in Noho, which meant more subways and walking. We got back to the hotel in New Jersey taking the PATH train to Hoboken. It was midnight by the time we got back, not Cliff's usual schedule.

The next day we took the ferry back to lower Manhattan and visited the World Trade center Memorial and the new tower. 

We walked from there over the Manhattan bridge to look at the Brooklyn Bridge and up and down the East River.  

Then we went to Williamsburg. Cliff is a big fan of "Unorthodox" and wanted to see the Brooklyn neighborhhod at the center of the drama. We walked a few hundred feet from the subway station to an Orthodox shul. 

We then went to Grand Central Terminal. Cliff's dad was a big fan of the Oyster Bar in GCT so Cliff wanted to see it. We went from there to Park Avenue, then over to Times Square just after sunset. We then walked over to 9th Avenue and had Chicken Teriyaki at a ramen restaurant. We walked the PATH train by way of Penn Station and the Moynihan Train Hall before returning to New Jersey.

The next morning I dropped Cliff at Newark Airport for his flight home by way of Charlotte NC.

  

Birthday Rides!!! 67km of Fun at 67 Years Old

The Ben Franklin Bridge, connecting Philadelphia and Camden

For my 67th birthday, I rode 67 km in four separate rides, mostly on hills across half of Pennsylvania.  On May 1, I drove to Philadelphia, stopping about halfway on the 80-mile drive, at the intersection of Pa. Routes 23 and 10.  Just south of that crossroad is a 2.5-km hill I really like. Usually when I travel to Philadelphia I am on a train, but since I was driving I could stop, and ride up and down this hill. 

After that ride, I drove to center city Philadelphia, parked on the Delaware Water Front and rode for a few hours.  I rode back on forth across the Ben Franklin Bridge, then across the city to West River Drive. This four-lane road is closed to traffic on weekends from March to October, but now it is closed to cars all the time.  I rode with walkers, runners and other riders with a lot of space to stay far apart.  I went all the way to City Line Avenue before turning around and taking a different way back to the Delaware River, and riding the Ben Franklin Bridge again. 

On the way home I pulled off the Turnpike at Morgantown to ride the Rt. 10 hill again--faster up and down than the morning. 

Today, May 2, I drove to a small town near Gettysburg to visit my son at a job site where he is working. He is part of a crew that is hanging overhead doors on a loading dock.  They were just finishing hanging 60 doors this week.

Then I drove to Fort Loudon and rode up and down Tuscarora Summit.  I rode the five-mile climb faster than I have since before knee replacement in March of last year.

What better way to celebrate my 67th birthday than riding 67 kilometers and climbing 1200 meters?