Honoring the nation's great communicators

Among the 11 award winners, He Daokuan, 81, a professor at Shenzhen University in South China's Guangdong province, concentrates on translating academic works in liberal arts and social sciences. He has written and translated more than 110 titles, covering more than 25 million words.

Since the 1980s, he's been introducing the idea of intercultural communication and media ecology, as well as Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan's works. American media and communication scholars Michael Prosser and Paul Levinson have spoken highly of He's contribution to the development of communication studies in China.

As well as translating Peter Berger's Invitation to Sociology, He has also worked in the field of cultural studies by translating classics such as Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture.

He has said in previous interviews that after he retired in 2002, he gets up at 3 am and works until 9 pm.

He has also called for more emphasis on the translation of academic works from government and academic institutions.