SHANGHAI - The great translator Wu Lao has left us, but he will always be remembered and loved by readers in China for his Chinese translation of Hemingway's masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea.

A memorial service was held in Shanghai on Tuesday for Wu, who passed away on October 30 at the age of 90 in the same city.

A graduate of Saint John's University in Shanghai, Wu started to work for Shanghai Translation Publishing House in 1979 as an editor and translator.

He translated several popular American novels including Martin Eden and The Magician of Lublin, but the most important legacy he left is the Chinese version of The Old Man and the Sea.

"Wu was asked to translate the novel when it started to arouse Chinese readers' attention in the late 1990s," said Zhang Jianping, director of the literature desk of Shanghai Translation Publishing House, at the service.

"It caused a sensation soon after the Chinese version was published in 2004."

Wu's translation of the novel has been printed 22 times and has sold more than 1 million copies, according to Zhang.

Wu sought to retain the style demonstrated in the original text, with experts believing that his translation faithfully reflected Hemingway's simplicity of writing.

Wu never married and had no offspring.