A ceremony aimed at honoring the outstanding work of Chinese people who live overseas and highlight Chinese culture and encourage cultural exchanges with the rest of the world was held on Wednesday in Beijing.

The ceremony, which gave awards to overseas Chinese of the year, was hosted by China News Service and included over 300 participants from government, enterprises and research institutes. The event also selected the top ten news related to overseas Chinese last year.

Since 2017, the event has granted annual awards to renowned and influential people from fields of economy, science and technology, culture, education, art, sports, public welfare.

This year, the honor was granted to ten overseas Chinese, including Florence Fang, a San Francisco-based philanthropist and entrepreneur, Harvard University professor Qiu Chengtong, architect Pei Ieoh-ming, songwriter Gu Jianfen, businesswoman Annie Wu Suk-ching and Jeremy Lin, a former NBA player who joined CBA last year.

Fang, a philanthropist and entrepreneur was awarded for her efforts to nurture better communication between China and the United States. Upon receiving the award, Fang said: "I was born in China and adopted by the US, and the harmony relationship between the two countries is my lifelong wish".

The 84-year-old has helped Americans to understand China by donating library and academic buildings for universities from both countries and has put forward an initiative to send 100,000 American students to study in China.

She said she hopes students from the US as well as other countries will learn Chinese and have a better understanding of the country. She has also organized exhibitions to show photographs of China taken by Americans.

Fang said: "It is more convincible to introduce China through their eyes and experience."