Cai Zhuotang (Si Guo) [real name Frederick C. Tsai 蔡濯堂] 1918-2004

An Essayist and translator, Cai was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. He came to Hong Kong in the late 1940s and worked as an editor at various organizations, including the Catholic weekly Kung Kao Po 公教報 and the Chinese edition of Reader's Digest 讀者文摘. A devout Catholic, he also served as Professor of Chinese at the Holy Spirit Seminary. After migrating to the United States in 1971, he made frequent and long visits to Hong Kong and continued to publish locally. His highly-praised Chinese translation of David Copperfield was finished at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he was a Visiting Fellow in the late 1970s. Tsai is remembered as one of Hong Kong's best essayists. His most popular works include Kan hua ji 看花集 [Looking at flowers] (1976), Linju bihua 林居筆話 [Jottings from a woodland house] (1979) and Xianggang zhi qiu 香港之秋 [Autumn in Hong Kong] (1980).

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