Professor Zeng Fanren, born in January 1941, hails from Jing xian,Anhui Province. A celebratedaesthetician, he is the founder of contemporary Chinese ecological aesthetics, and currently holds lifetime tenure as a Professor at Shandong University. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Shandong University in July 1964 and joined the teaching faculty at the same department in the same year. He was promoted to the rank of Lecturer in 1978, became an Associate Professor in 1983, and was promoted to Professor in 1987. At Shandong University, Professor Zeng has served as Provost, and as Executive Vice-President. He has also held the positions of Deputy Director and Secretary of the Communist Party Group of the Shandong Provincial Education Commission, Communist Party Secretary of Ocean Universityof China in Qingdao, and Communist Party Secretary and President of Shandong University. He is currently the Director of the Research Center for Literary and Artistic Aesthetics of Shandong University, a Key Research Base in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education. He is also the acclaimed Academic Leader in the Discipline of Literature and Art of Shandong University, recognized as a Key Academic Field at the National level. He holds the title of Chief Expert in Shandong University’s “985” Project in“Aesthetic Culture Research” as well as the title of Chief Expert in the “Western Literary Theory”Project of the Ministry of Education’s National Project of Marxist Theory Research and Construction. In addition to his academic position at Shandong University, Professor Zeng also serves as one of the conveners of the Review and Assessment Panel in the discipline of Chinese Language and Literature for the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, as a member of the Chinese Language and Literature Panel of the National Social Sciences Project, a Commissioner on the Ministry of Education’s Social Sciences Commission andone of the conveners of Commission’s Humanities Section. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Education’s Commission for Artistic Education and the head of its Institutions of Higher Education Section, Vice Chairman of the Shandong Province Academic Degrees Committee, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Aesthetics, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Chinese and Foreign Literary Theory Studies, as well as  President of the Shandong Association of Comparative Literature. From October 2004 to February 2005, Professor Zeng was a High-level Visiting Scholar at Victoria University of Canada. Professor Zeng has received numerous prizes and awards, including, in 2005, a national award for Mentorship of the Most Outstanding 100 Doctoral Dissertations in the Nation. He has won the Shandong Province Prize for Mentorship of Outstanding Doctoral Students many times. In 1994, and again in 2003, he won a Level-2 Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the Social Sciences in Shandong Province, and a Level-1 Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the Social Sciences in Shandong Province in 2007.In 2011, Professor Zeng was the recipient of Shandong Province’s Fifth Annual Prize for Most Outstanding Contribution to the Social Sciences, and at the same time a Ministry of Education Level-3 Prize in the Social Sciences.

Professor Zenghas long been engaged in the teaching and research in the fieldsofAesthetics, and Literature and Art. In China, he is the pace-setter for academic standards in research in the fields of ecological aesthetics, aesthetic education and literary aesthetics, and he also stands at the forefront of Chinese research and studies of Western aesthetics. As Director of the Research Center for Literary and Artistic Aesthetics of Shandong University, a key research base in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Professor Zeng supervises the academic work of the base, making the base one of the centers in the fields of ecological aesthetics, aesthetic education, and literary aesthetics in the new century.

In the area of ecological aesthetics research and studies: Professor Zeng, as one of the chief advocates of ecological aesthetics studies in the nation, has done a series of pioneering work in the past ten years. Since 2001, he has carried out contemporary ecological aesthetics research, consciously guided by the Party's announced goal and purpose of constructing and building up the theory of an“ecological civilization” and closely aligning and integrating these goals with China's experience, he strives to construct ecological aesthetics theory with Chinese characteristics. Professor Zeng has published more than thirty papers and articles on the subject in major newspapers and periodicals such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Literary Review, Literature and Art Research, and Wen-Shi-Zhe (A Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy). He has also published a monograph, titled Papers on Ecological Existentialism and Aesthetics (original edition and one second edition) in which through four key chapters, respectively on the subjects of the theory of the origination of ecological aesthetics, its fundamental contents and implications, its resources, and its theoretical foundations, Professor Zeng described comprehensively as well as constructed preliminarily a system of ecological aesthetics with Chinese characteristics for our time.In 2007, Professor Zeng began to formally offer the course “Ecological Aesthetics” in the graduate curriculum at Shandong University. The subject and contents of that course have now been published as a text, under the title of An Introduction to Ecological Aesthetics, by Commercial Press. Professor Zeng has, meanwhile, also hosted and convened two international academic conferences on ecological aesthetics in which major scholars in China as well as abroad whose research work is in the fields of ecological aesthetics and/or environmental aestheticshave attended and participated, and at which they have thus conducted a cutting-edge academic dialogue on matters related to these fields. Professor Zeng himself has also delivered keynote speeches or other scholarly presentations on ecological aesthetics at various international academic conferences related to the field in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong. His remarks have been reprinted many times in important publications such as Xinhua Digest.

In the area of aesthetic education research and studies, Professor Zeng, as one of the chief advocates of aesthetic education in the new era and a member of the Art Education Commission of the Ministry of Education, has strongly promoted the development of the discipline of aesthetic education in China. Professor Zeng began to explore the theory and practice of aesthetic education in 1981, and published several monographs in the field, including: On Aesthetic Education: Ten Lectures, Toward an Aesthetic Education in the Twenty-First Century, and Theoryin Modern Aesthetic Education.Professor Zeng has also served as chief editor ofBiographies of Thinkers and Philosophers in the Field of Aesthetic Education in China and Abroad. He supervised carrying out the research project, “A Comparative Study of Art Education in Modern and Contemporary China and the West” a key obstacle-breaking research project in one of the major subjects of research in Philosophy and the Social Sciences under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. The end result of this subject study, A Comparative Study of Public Art Education in Modern Institutions of Higher Education in China and in the West was published by the Economic Sciences Press in 2009.Professor Zeng has authored and published more than twenty scholarly papers and articles in this field, producing many innovative and creative works in studies on the nature, the effect, the status, and the  connotations of aesthetic education. Professor Zeng has served for many years as a member of the Standing Committee of the Art Education Commission of the Ministry of Education and the chair of its Higher Education Section, and as such he also served as the Project Leader that supervised and chaired the drafting of the Ministry of Education’s “A Curriculum Guide For Public Art Education in General Colleges and Universities Throughout China,” thus having a significant impact on promoting the implementation of public art education in all the general colleges and universities in the nation. Professor Zeng chaired the convening of the 2002 International Symposium on Aesthetic and Art Education in Qingdao, and at the conference he delivered the speech, “Developments in Aesthetic Education in China in the New Era” in which he provided for an international audience a comprehensive summary of the achievements that China has made in the New Era in art education, and its orientation for development in this area. Professor Zeng’s achievements in aesthetic education research have been broadly affirmed by academic circles. The article “Walking In The Company of Those Who Are the Builders of Contemporary Aesthetic Education Theory”, published in The Bulletin of Aesthetic Education, a periodical jointly published by The Higher Education Press and the NationalAssociation For Higher Education’s Aesthetic Education Professional Committee, describes “the construction of contemporary aesthetic education theory” by Professor Zeng as “guided primarily by Marxist principles, and, on the basis of advocating the absorption and integration of Chinese and Western aesthetic thought and theory and attending to the development of aesthetic education practice, establishes the very theoretical foundation for the construction of contemporary aesthetic education in China, as well as popularizes the contemporary nature and contents of today’s theory for aesthetic education.” For its part, the Economic Sciences Press, in the general introductory brochure on the publication of the first batch of end results of the thirty-four key obstacle-breaking research project in major subjects of research in Philosophy and the Social Sciences under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, acclaimedA Comparative Study of Public Art Education in Modern Institutions of Higher Education in China and in the West, for which Professor Zeng was the editor in chief, as a “path-breaking first work in China to carry out a comparative study of public art education in modern colleges and universities in China and in the West, and, as such fills an enormous blank in scholarship in the area.”

In the area of literary aesthetics studies and research: Since 2001, Professor Zeng, as Director of the Research Center for Literary and Artistic Aesthetics of Shandong University, has taken the initiative to launch a series of academic activities related to the study of literary and artistic aesthetics, making the center an important position in the study of literary aesthetics in the new century in China. He has presided over the convening of two national academic conferences on literary and artistic aesthetics, and he has published important papers such as “The Birth and Development of Literary Aesthetics as an Academic Discipline in China”, “A Tentative Discussion of the Construction and Formation of Literary Aesthetics as an Academic Discipline”. Professor Zeng has also supervised the work of writing and editing A Curriculum in Literary Aesthetics, a textbook compiled under the aegis of the National “Tenth Five-Year Plan” for general higher education, and which was published by Higher Education Press in October 2005. Unlike literary aesthetics textbooks in the past whose theoretical frameworks tend for the most part to take as a point of origin or departure either the aesthetic essence of art or the aesthetic activities of art, this book, instead, absorbs the lessons resulting from research work done both in China and abroad, takes as the point of departure for the study of literary and artistic aesthetics the “aesthetic experience of art” and the goal of “training and nurturing an entire new generation of Chinese people who would learn and become knowledgeable about the very existential survival of aesthetics” as the fundamental purpose and underlying principle of the discipline of literary and artistic aesthetics, thus constructing and forming a brand-new academic discipline and system of literary and artistic aesthetics in China, leading to and achieving outstanding pedagogical results. In the article “A Tentative Discussion on the Question of Returning Contemporary Aesthetics and Literary Studies to the Humanistic Disciplines,” Professor Zeng addressed the problem that for a very long time Aesthetics and Literary Studies have been lumped together with other social sciences disciplines in general and thus their character and substance have become blurred and confused. Instead, Professor Zeng proposed that a humanistic nature should be restored to Aesthetics and to the academic study of literature and art. Professor Zeng supervised the 2001 National Foundation for the Social Sciences Key Research Project “The Development,in the New Era,of Chinese Literary Theory under the Influence of Western Literary Theory, and the Construction of a Literary Theory System with Chinese Characteristics”.The final outcome of the research project, A Study of The History of Chinese Literary Studies in the New Erais a work that is consciously guided by Marxist theory and principle, and stands as acomprehensive summary of the historical process through which Chinese literature and art evolved and developed in the New Era.

In the area of the study of Western aesthetics and Western literary theory:Throughout the thirty years of the New Era in China, Professor Zeng has consistently adhered to the goal of doing the work of teaching and conducting research in Western aesthetics and literary theory, and has achieved a series of important academic accomplishments in this area. Sincebeginning to offer the course “Western Aesthetics” in 1982, he has published the monographsA Brief Introduction to Western Aesthetics and An Outline of Western Aesthetics,and was chief editor of Ideas and Ideologies of Modern Aestheticism in the West.In addition, Professor Zeng participated in the editing of the university-level textbook Western Theories in Literature and Art: A Teaching Curriculum(Hu Jingzhi, editor-in-chief), as well as published more than twenty articles and papers in the area. He has achieved outstanding scholarly accomplishments in the study of ancient Greek aesthetics and in research in German classical aesthetics, especially Kantian aesthetics. In recent years, Professor Zeng, in alignment with the newly developing situation and conditions in China and in the world, has devoted himself to the study of Western environmental aesthetics and literary ecological criticism, and has published a significant number or articles on these topics. In October 2009, the “Western Literary Theory”Project , a proposal for which was submitted to the Ministry of Education with Professor Zeng listed as Chief Expert, passed review and was approved and established as a sponsored project of the National Project of Marxist Theory Research and Construction.

In the area of teaching and curriculum development and building up academic disciplines, Professor Zeng, as the head of the literature and art disciplinary areaat Shandong University, and a member of many related academic organizations of the Ministry of Education as well as in other branches of the national central government, plays a positive role in improving the standards and the academic influence of the discipline of literature and art in Shandong University as well asin academic-discipline construction and development of the university as a whole. In 2001, the Research Center for Literary and Artistic Aesthetics of Shandong University, for which Professor Zeng served as Director, was approved as a Key Research Base of the Ministry of Educationin the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2002, the Discipline of Literature and Art of Shandong University, of which Professor Zeng is the acclaimed Academic Leader, was recognized as a Key Academic Field at the National level, and in 2007 this recognition was further extended after passing the processes of review and assessment. Professor Zeng has been engaged in postgraduate training since 1987, when he began to train MA students; he began to train Ph.D students in 1996 and won a national award for Mentorship of the Most Outstanding 100 Doctoral Dissertations in the Nation in 2005. As a scholar, he himself has actively participated in international academic exchange activities for a long time, and has done much work in fostering academic exchanges between Shandong University and other universities, including those in countries and regions outside of China, especially in the discipline of literary and artistic studies, and attained many outstanding accomplishments in this regard. In acknowledgement of the important contribution made by Professor Zeng to the intercollegiate cooperation and exchange between Shandong University and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, on January 7, 2009, President Seo Jung-donof Sungkyunkwan University awarded him a specially signed medal in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to academic exchange between China and South Korea.”

Contact information:

Mailing Address: Research Center for Literary and Artistic Aesthetics,Shandong University, 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province
E-mail address:zfr@sdu.edu.cn