From the 4^th century to the 14^th century, the ancient Chinese people spent more than 1000 years digging Dunhuang Caves which are 1680 meters long from north to south; from National Institute of Dunhuang Art founded in 1944 to today’s Dunhuang Research Academy, generations of “Dunhuang people” have spent more than 70 years bringing the flourishing place in the Middle Ages again to the world. On Nov. 29, 2015, a large exhibition entitled “Dunhuang: Songs of Living Beings” was opened at Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum. When people are appreciating the beautiful Dunhuang art, the art treasures on the Silk Road will closely encounter modern art for the first time.

During the exhibition, former president of Dunhuang Research Academy Ms. Fan Jinshi, who has been doing research on Dunhuang art for more than 50 years and is known as “Dunhuang’s Daughter”, will give a lecture at Shanghai Library about Dunhuang as a place that concentrates 4 cultural systems, and its cultural values.

   In July 1963, Fan Jinshi (female, of Han ethnic group, born in July 1938, and whose ancestral homeland is Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) graduated from the Major of Archaeology under the Department of History of Peking University, and began to work with Dunhuang Institute of Cultural Relics (former of Dunhuang Research Academy) till now; she is former president of Dunhuang Research Academy, Dean Emeritus and research librarian of Dunhuang Research Academy, member of Central Research Institute of Culture and History, and member of the 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th National Committees of CPPCC. Specialized in the protection and management of and archaeological research on Dunhuang Caves, Fan Jinshi is chief editor of more than 10 monographs including A Complete Collection of Dunhuang Caves - Subject Classification (26 volumes) and Dunhuang Caves (10 volumes), writing and publishing many monographs including A Complete Collection of Dunhuang Caves - Archaeological Report on No. 266-275 Grottos, A Complete Collection of Chinese Art Classification • A Complete Collection of Chinese Murals • Dunhuang • The Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), A Complete Collection of Dunhuang Caves • Picture Scrolls on Buddhist Stories, and dozens of theses including “Periodization of Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang in the Northern Dynasties (386-581)”, “Periodization of Dunhuang Caves in the Sui Dynasty (581-618)”, “Periodization of Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang in the Early Tang Dynasty (618-907)”, and “Dunhuang Murals and Monk Xuanzang’s Translation of Sutras”.