Fan Jinshi

Fan Jinshi, 81, currently acts as the honorary president of Dunhuang Academy.

Fan, a Han Chinese, first trekked all the way to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in the middle of the desert in July 1963 shortly after graduating from college, cherishing a dream to protect the national cultural heritage, and remained there for more than 50 years. Over the past decades, she entrenched herself in the desert, as if her life and Dunhuang's had blended into one, and became known as the "Daughter of Dunhuang".

Fan's devotion to archaeology, protection and management of grottoes never wavered, and she has made outstanding contributions to the cause of "protecting, studying and carrying forward" Dunhuang grottoes through her works.

Fan highly values protection of cultural relics and actively promotes the promulgation and implementation of Regulations on Protecting Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province and Overall Planning of Protection of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes (2006-2025) to lead the protection work of Dunhuang grottoes onto a path of scientific development.

She was the first to suggest the "Digital Dunhuang" concept and planned and implemented the largest-ever comprehensive protection program in the history of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes - Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Protection and Utilization Project. She also actively promotes international exchanges and partnerships for Dunhuang grottoes and has initiated the international cooperation wave in China's cultural relics project field.

Fan is a big advocate and active promoter of popularization of the Dunhuang culture, and has helped organize multiple successful Dunhuang arts exhibitions both at home and abroad, achieving sound social and economic results. Fan also highly values nurturing and growing talent, laying a solid foundation for the scientific development of Dunhuang grottoes cultural relics. She also actively works to resolve any conflicts between protection and opening-up of cultural relics for utilization. Her efforts have boosted the levels of protection and management modernization of Dunhuang grottoes and she has been praised as "a model in effective protection, reasonable utilization and elaborate management of cultural relics in China" by the Party and national leaders.

Fan turned 80 years old this year. But she continues to perform the roles as an honorary president of Dunhuang Academy even after retirement, becoming an advocate and model practitioner of the "Mogao Spirits" of being devoted to the desert, dedicated, responsible and enterprising. In December 2018, Fan was conferred the honorary title of "Reform Pioneer" by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.