(CFP)

Zhang Dongpan, a writer who has published books on soldiers in the China-Burma-India Theater of the War Against Japanese Aggression during World War II, was named Cultural Person of the Year by Sina.com, one of the largest Chinese website portals.

"This prize is not for me, but for those honorable soldiers 70 years ago. This prize expresses the people's desire for truth and affirmation for the action of pursuing truth," said Zhang at the awards ceremony in Beijing.

Zhang is the author of National Memory, which was published in October, 2010. Before that, Zhang led a seven-person team to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and spent two months collecting more than 20,000 pictures of soldiers at the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II.

Zhang, 57, has a legendary life. He was a dead-eye shot as a soldier at the age of 15. He worked in the Palace Museum at the age of 19 and became an expert on calligraphy and painting. Zhang was once the biggest agent for a satellite telephone maker in China. He is now engaged selling military flashlights overseas, which appeared in the Hollywood blockbuster Transformers 2. Zhang started studying the history of the China-Burma-India Theater in 2003 and published two books about it.