In the bright starry sky, there is a "Fan Jinshi Star"!

On July 10, the naming ceremony of "Fan Jinshi Star" was held at the Dunhuang Academy. Approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Asteroid Nomenclature Committee, the asteroid discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and with the international number 381323 was named "Fan Jinshi Star".

It takes 5.66 years for Fan Jinshi Star to orbit the sun, with an average speed of 1.41 million kilometers per day. According to observations, the maximum distance from Fan Jinshi Star to the Earth is 727 million kilometers, and the closest distance is only 224 million kilometers.

Image source: CCTV News

A communiqué released by the International Astronomical Union shows that Fan Jinshi has made significant contributions to the archaeology and protection of China's grottoes, built the "Digital Dunhuang" and comprehensive protection system, and provided an example for the protection of world cultural heritage.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

At the same time, after donating 10 million yuan to Peking University to support Dunhuang studies, Fan Jinshi donated another 10 million yuan to the China Dunhuang Grottoes Protection and Research Foundation to be used for the development of Dunhuang cultural relics and the training of urgently needed talents. The donation came from Fan Jinshi's awards and personal savings.

Image source: Dunhuang Academy official website

"I have given up half my life to the vast desert. From Weiming Lake to Mogao Grottoes, I have kept the fire of my predecessors and opened up the road to tomorrow. Not everyone can withstand the wind and sand of half a century. A heart full of love, a cave painting, a cultural journey, from youth to old age. The place where my heart belongs is Dunhuang."

This is the award speech for Fan Jinshi, the honorary director of the Dunhuang Academy and an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, when she was awarded the title of "Person Who Moved China 2019". When people mention her, they always affectionately call her "Daughter of Dunhuang".

Dunhuang culture belongs to China, but Dunhuang studies belong to the world. Protecting the Mogao Grottoes and inheriting the Dunhuang culture is the responsibility of the Chinese nation for the progress of world civilization. How to make these thousand-year-old art treasures "eternally beautiful" has become the common pursuit of generations of Mogao Grottoes guardians.

Image source: Dunhuang Academy official website

Fan Jinshi chose one thing to do in her life and dedicated half of her life to Dunhuang without any regrets.

She devoted her entire life to the protection, research and promotion of the Dunhuang Grottoes, and completed important cultural relic research and protection projects such as the periodization of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and the construction of "Digital Dunhuang".

She visited 735 caves of all sizes and looked at every mural and every colored sculpture. As a cave archaeologist, Fan Jinshi presided over the compilation of the documentary archaeological report "The Complete Works of Dunhuang Grottoes", which is known as the first scientific and academic cave archaeological report in China and is praised by scholars as "both true and accurate, exquisite and exquisite, and Dunhuang studies have reached a new level."

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In 1987, Mogao Grottoes were approved as the first batch of world cultural heritage in my country. The application materials were all handwritten by Fan Jinshi. Later, under her promotion, a series of protection regulations and protection plans were introduced. In order to preserve and sustainably utilize the cultural relics information of Dunhuang Grottoes, Fan Jinshi led the team to establish a systematic "Digital Dunhuang" resource library, so that Dunhuang culture and art can truly go out of the caves and go to the world.

On December 18, 2018, Fan Jinshi was awarded the honorary title of Reform Pioneer by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, awarded the Reform Pioneer Medal, and was named "Explorer of Effective Protection of Cultural Relics."

On September 29, 2019, the awarding ceremony of the National Medal and National Honorary Title of the People's Republic of China was held in the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, awarded medals to the recipients of the National Medal and National Honorary Title. Fan Jinshi is the only "Outstanding Contributor to Cultural Relics Protection" in the country.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

Even after retiring for many years, Fan Jinshi still spends most of her time in Dunhuang every year. The second volume of "Complete Collection of Dunhuang Grottoes", which took her more than 10 years to compile and contains more than 300,000 words, is her biggest concern.

She once said: "I think about Dunhuang during the day and dream about Dunhuang at night. As long as I am still alive, I will work hard for Dunhuang." After sixty years of guarding the Mogao Grottoes, she also found a sense of belonging to home and happiness in life in her beloved job: "Everything must go away, and the real happiness is to become the true self under the call of your own heart."

Today, more than 400 million kilometers away from the Earth, an asteroid named after her, "Fan Jinshi Star", is also quietly moving and shining in the vast sky.

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Comprehensive sources: Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News, Gansu Daily, etc.