Abstract: Scholar-translators are an important group in translation. Their roles as a scholar and as a translator interact and greatly contribute to intercultural communication. These contributions are: 1) rational selection of foreign information; 2 ) reduction of mistakes in translation; 3) creation of new cultural phenomenon such as new words, syntax, and literature forms and 4) construction of new translation theory. However the particularity in translation may lead scholar/translators to transcend their role as a translator and become opinion leaders or gatekeepers and the difficulty in translation may unconsciously cause some negative effects.

Key words: translation, scholar-translator, interculturalcommunication