World-renowned Chinese translator dies at 100

Renowned translator Xu Yuanchong died today in Beijing at the age of 100, Peking University said.

Xu was a master of translating ancient Chinese poems into English and French, and the first Asian winner of the world's most prestigious translation award, the Aurora Borealis Prize, which he received in 2014.

Xu translated Chinese classic literature such as "The Book of Songs" (诗经) and "Elegies of the South" (楚辞), as well as Western novels including "Le Rouge et le Noir."

Xu was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Translation honor by the Translators Association of China in 2010.

Xu graduated from National Southwest Associated University's Foreign Languages Department. He was admitted to Tsinghua University's Foreign Literature Research Institute in 1944, and began his teaching career at Peking University in 1983.

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