Dong Jian (; January 1936 – 12 May 2019) was a Chinese literary scholar who specialized in the history of the

theatre of China Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Traditional Chinese theatre, generally in the form of Chinese opera, is musical in nature. Chinese theatre can trace its origin back a few millennia to ancient China, but the Chinese opera started ...

. He was a distinguished professor and Chair of the Department of Chinese of

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xianl ...

, and served as Vice President of the university from 1988 to 1993.

Biography

Dong was born in January 1936 in

Shouguang Shouguang () is a county-level city in the north-central part of Shandong Province, China, situated on the southwest shore of the Laizhou Bay. Under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Weifang, it has people residing within the mun ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

, Republic of China. He entered Beijing Russian College (now part of

Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU; ), is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidia ...

) in 1956, before transferring to

the following year to study Chinese literature. Upon graduation in 1962, he pursued his master's degree at Nanjing University under the supervision of Chen Zhongfan (), and expert in classical Chinese theatre. After completing his studies, Dong became a faculty member of Nanjing University. He served as Chair of the Chinese Department from 1986 to 1988, Vice President of Nanjing University from 1988 to 1993, President of the Institute of Theatre, Film, and Television Research from 1993 to 2012, and Director of the China New Literature Research Centre from 2005 to 2011. Dong published numerous works on theatre history and theory, as well as contemporary literature of China. One of his most important works is ''A Draft History of Modern Chinese Theatre'' (), co-authored with the renowned playwright

Chen Baichen Chen may refer to: People *Chen (surname) (陳 / 陈), a common Chinese surname * Chen (singer) (born 1992), member of the South Korean-Chinese boy band EXO * Chen Chen (born 1989), Chinese-American poet * (), a Hebrew first name or surname: * ...

. It won multiple national and provincial prizes. He also published a comprehensive study of Chen Baichen's works, ''Biography of

Tian Han Tian Han ( zh, 田汉; 12 March 1898 – 10 December 1968), formerly romanized as T'ien Han, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the ...

'', and ''A New Draft History of Contemporary Chinese Literature'' ().

People's Literature Publishing House The People's Literature Publishing House () is a large-scale publishing house in China. It was established in March 1951, and was attached to the (). It is known for scholarly publications, editions of classical Chinese literature, dictionaries, ...

published his collective works in 2016. Dong died on 12 May 2019 in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dong, Jian 1936 births 2019 deaths Writers from Weifang Beijing Foreign Studies University alumni Nanjing University alumni Academic staff of Nanjing University Scholars of Chinese literature Chinese theatre people