Professor FAN Jinshi

Fan Jinshi (1938-  ), born in Beijing, and her ancestral hometown was Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. She started to work in Dunhuang Cultural Heritage Institute in 1963, after she graduated from the Archaeology major of History Department of Peking University. She took the responsibility as a deputy director of the Dunhuang Cultural Heritage Institute, deputy director, director and researcher of Dunhuang Academy successively. Currently, she serves as the emeritus director of Dunhuang Academy, librarian of the Central Institute of Culture and History of China, emeritus director of the Dunhuang and Turpan Society of China. She studies grottoes archaeology, conservation and administration, devotes her lifetime efforts to the conservation, research and promotion career of Dunhuang grottoes and significantly improved modernization for Dunhuang grottoes on the fields of scientific conservation and administration. She created a new mode for grottoes archaeology, with multidisciplinary inter-cross and fusion in depth. The Archaeological Report on Cave 266-275 at Mogao Grottoes under her general editorship was widely quoted by the academics in China and abroad. She built a comprehensive administration system on World Heritage based on values and system theory, advocated the formulation, publication and implementation of Regulations on Conservation of Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, Gansu Province and General Planning for Conservation of Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang; widely conducted international cooperation and created a methodology system for scientific conservation of grottoes in China; proposed “Digital Dunhuang” initiative, which realized digital permanent preservation and sustainable utilization for Dunhuang grottoes cultural heritage; firstly conducted research on visitor load capacity among Chinese heritage sites, advocated and hosted “Conservation and Utilization Project of Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang”, and explored a new mode for the opening and administration of Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang. She was honorably authorized with titles including “National Outstanding Professional and Technical Personnel”, “National Advanced Worker”, one of the “100 Persons Who Moved China Since the Establishment of the P.R.C.”, “LUI Che Woo Prize - Prize for World Civilization”, “Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation-Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievements”, “National Moral Model and Revolution Pioneer”, in addition, a national honorary title of “Outstanding Contributor for Conservation of Cultural Heritage”. She was also renowned as “Dunhuang’s Daughter”.