Timothy Tung, a Chinese-American writer who helped introduce American literature and culture to Chinese readers, died on Saturday in New York. He was 93.

The cause was a heart attack, according to the local newspaper China Press.

Tung, also known as Dong Dingshan to Chinese readers, was a writer, translator and literary critic whose essays were published in newspapers and magazines in China and the US.

Born in 1922 in Ningbo, China, Tung developed a love for writing at an early age. His article "On Secondary Education in War-time Ningbo" was published in his hometown's newspaper when he was 14.

In 1945, he graduated with a degree in English literature from Saint John's University in Shanghai, the first institution to grant bachelor's degrees in China.

After working as a reporter and editor in Shanghai for two years, he went to the US in 1947 as a graduate student.

Tung earned two master's degrees from the University of Missouri and Columbia University and then worked at the City University of New York as a professor of English literature until his retirement in 1989.

In 1978, he visited China for the first time in 31 years after his arrival in the US. There he established contacts with men of letters, and one year later he began contributing frequently to a Chinese literary journal called "Dushu", or "reading" in English, introducing American literature, writers and culture to Chinese readers.

During his writing career, he also published more than 20 books. His last one, New Yorker Impression, was published by the Commercial Press, a Chinese publisher, in January 2014.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com