SHANGHAI, April 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Basketball player Yao Ming was named a national "labor hero" by the Chinese government on Wednesday.

    "The State Council, or the Chinese central government, has approved Yao's nomination," an official with the Shanghai Municipal Federation of Trade Unions told Xinhua Wednesday.

    Upon hearing the news, the 24-year-old Houston Rockets center Yao, whose team in National Basketball Association play-offs, said via his broker Zhang Chi, "I take it as one more honor and encouragement from my country."

    "Labor hero" is an honor once reserved for the likes of bus conductors, plumbers, miners and other employees in China.

    "I used to take the "model worker" as the title for those ordinary laborers working whole-heartedly and leaving their pay out of account, but now, apart from them, special 'migrant workers' like me can also receive the award, which shows the development of society," said Yao.

    Not all the Chinese applauded Yao's nomination. Some said labor heroes should be selected from ordinary workers, not rich superstars like Yao.

    Yao's supporters, however, said the Chinese young man is not only a basketball player, but also a messenger for the Chinese culture to the mainstream Western society.

    He helps show a brilliant, diligent and more confident China tothe outside world, those supporters said.

    In correspondence with great honors, Yao led the Chinese national basketball team into the quarterfinals at Athens Olympic Games last year.

    "The reason why we nominated Yao is that he shows the modern image of the Chinese while being patriotic in international sports arena," the Shanghai official said.

    Since 1950, China has selected labor heroes nationwide. Along with Yao, businessmen running private companies and migrant workers from China's rural areas are among those receiving the honor.

    "We can test some subtle changes behind the fact that those people of diversified ranks are honored," said Prof. Li Qiang, a sociologist at prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing.

    In the late 1970s, the nomination of national labor heroes for intellectuals and businessmen running state companies was a stunning leap in traditional concepts of Chinese people.

    "From ordinary workers to intellectuals, to business people andsports stars," said Prof. Li, "it represents the diversity of Chinese society at modern times."

    "Compared with those labor heroes who have contributed tremendously to the motherland," Yao said via his broker Zhang, "I have to keep improving myself." Enditem