Yin Hubin 

(1960-2020) 

　　Yin Hubin, Senior Researcher and former Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature, passed away on March 13, 2020 in Beijing, at the age of 60.  

　　Yin Hubin was a Korean (Chaoxian Zu), born in Kuandian County, Liaoning Province, in 1960. He started his undergraduate study in Minzu University of China (MUC) in 1978, and entered the graduate school of MUC in 1984, becoming one of the first graduate students of MUC, majoring in contemporary literature. He came to the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL) at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 1987 and worked here until 2014. While he was in IEL, he became the doctoral student of the distinguished professor Zhong Jingwen in Beijing Normal University, majoring in folkloristics. He was a visiting scholar at the Department of Literature, Kim Il Sung University in North Korea, and later at Harvard Yenching Institute in the United States, and a visiting professor at the International Culture Department of Kobe University, Japan; these international academic exchanges gave him a greatly expanded spectrum of knowledge and academic perspective.  

　　Throughout his academic career in CASS for over 30 years, Yin Hubin had always been fully devoted to and deeply insightful in his academic studies, and also strained himself in his support and contribution to the management and development of both institutes he worked in. While in the Institute of Ethnic Literature, Yin Hubin was Senior Researcher, supervisor of master and doctoral students in folkloristics, the Director of the Ethnic Literature Department at the Graduate School of CASS as well as the Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature. Yin Hubin also served as the president of the Chinese Ethnic Language Society, the vice president of the Chinese Ethnic Literature Society, and the vice president of the Chinese Folklore Society. In November 2014, he transferred to the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology as the Deputy Director, as well as the Editor-in-chief of Ethnic Languages.  

　　Yin Hubin was a distinguished scholar in the fields of Chinese folklore, folk literature and ethnic literature, and made important contributions in the aforementioned areas. His representative works include Ancient Classics and Oral Tradition (monograph), Folk Belief and Worship of Land God Houtu in Hebei (monograph). He translated The Singer of Tales into Chinese, which is an important contribution to the introduction of Oral Formulaic Theory in China. He also committed himself to the postgraduate teaching, inclusive and insightful, modest and prudent, and gained a high reputation and respect as a professor. 

　　It is a huge sorrow and regret for the faculty of the Institute of Ethnic Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who have lost a good colleague and friend. We express our heartfelt sorrow and our deep condolences to late professor Yin Hubin’s family.  

　　May professor Yin Hubin rest in peace. He will be remembered by us all. 

　　Source：IEL