Wolfgang Kubin

Wolfgang Kubin (born 1945 in Celle; Chinese name Gu Bin) is a German sinologist, translator and author. After studying Protestant theology, he turned to sinology, German studies, philosophy and Japanese studies. He received his doctorate in 1973 with a dissertation on the Chinese poet Du Mu and completed his habilitation at the Free University of Berlin in 1981. From 1985 to 2011, he taught and researched at the University of Bonn, first focusing on modern and later on classical Chinese literature. His publications include a ten-volume history of Chinese literature and numerous translations from Chinese. From the 1970s onward, he worked as a translator and scholar, and later increasingly as a poet, essayist and author of fiction. His scholarly, translational and literary work received several awards in Germany and China. He began writing and publishing at the age of 16.