Chen Jianlan is the Dean of the School of the Liberal Arts of Renmin University of China, professor and doctoral supervisor. He has been selected as one of the leading talents in philosophy and social sciences under the National High-Level Personnel of Special Support Program, one of the "Four Groups of Talents", and a distinguished professor of the "distinguished scholars" program of Renmin University. He received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2002, and worked at the Chinese National Academy of Arts as editor and deputy editor-in-chief of Literature and Art Studies. He became a professor of the School of Liberal Arts of Renmin University in 2018, and then became the Dean of the School of the Liberal Arts of Renmin University since 2018. He also serves as a member of the Chinese Language and Literature Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the chairman of the Literature and Art Branch of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of Renmin University of China, the vice president of the Chinese Society of Literature and Art Theory, the vice president of the Chinese Society of Aesthetics, and the member of the editorial board of the Journal of Renmin University of China. His research focuses on Western modern literature and aesthetics, Chinese modern literature and aesthetics, and Chinese contemporary art criticism. He is the author of Absence and Incidental Presence, and his publications include The Critical Dimension in Modern Aesthetics: On Schiller’s Concept of Aesthetic State, From Aesthetics to Aesthetic Utopia-a History of Issues in Early Modern Aesthetics, etc.