Zi Zhongyun

Zi commented on China-United States relations at the 2020 Tsinghua Global Development Forum. She underscored that the future China-United States relations depended on internal development. China should insist on economic reform, integrate with the world, and value the role of technology advancement and talents. China should also make the experience of Europe a reference to prosper and thrive.

In 2019, her essay, "Mourning Tsinghua", first criticized university administrators' neglect of historic buildings on campus, some of which were destroyed by fire in 2010. She then went on to protest the treatment of professor Xu Zhangrun, who discovered that a student had been paid to report on the content of his lectures. She regarded this as the "latest round of 'book burning and burying scholars'", a suppression of free thought that started with Qin Shi Huangdi.

She claimed that China had entered the first stage of enlightenment of civic awareness through her observation of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. She enumerated three pillars. First, non-governmental donation campaigns were happening nationwide. She looked forward to more charity campaigns even under governmental restrictions and regulations. Second, regional governments hindered volunteers from being helpful because the authorities would not distribute their authority and power. Third, the development of NGOs faced many obstacles and challenges under governmental scrutiny.

In 1991, she resigned from the position of administrator.

From the end of 1991 to October 1992, she was a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, specializing in China studies.

From 1985 to 1992, she worked at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 1988, she accepted the promotion as the primary administrator of the US studies at Chinese Academy of Social Science.

In 1980, she worked at China Institute of International Studies (中国国际问题研究所), then she worked at Princeton University as a researcher in 1982.

In 1979, she was diagnosed with cancer. However, she recovered fast due to imminent treatments.

In 1971, she started to work at the US department affiliated with Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC).

From 1956 to 1959, she worked as a translator in Vienna.

Zi categorized her career into three phases in an interview. From the 1950s to the 1970s, she worked at the World Congress of Advocates of Peace and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). From the end of 1970 to the mid-1980, she primarily studied international affairs and politics, focusing on the US. She first worked at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), and then after 1985, she transferred to the Chinese Academy of Social Science. After she retired from CASS, she dedicated herself to more profound US studies and critical writing related to China’s temporary social issues. She considered the last phase the most meaningful and contributed.

Zi secondary studied at the Yaohua High School (耀华中学). She entered Tsinghua University in 1948, majoring in English language and French language in the Department of Western Languages and Literature, where she graduated in 1951.

Zi Zhongyun (simplified Chinese: 资中筠; traditional Chinese: 資中筠; pinyin: Zī Zhōngyún; born June 1930) is a Chinese translator and historian who is an expert on US studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is proficient in English and French.

Zi was born into a scholarly family in Shanghai in June 1930, with her ancestral home in Leiyang, Hunan, the daughter of Tong Yijun (童益君), a Chinese officer, and Zi Yaohua (资耀华), a banker and financier who was a graduate of Kyoto University, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. She has two sister, Zi Huayun (资华筠) and Zi Minyun (资民筠). Zi Huayuan, a dancer and actress, was born in 1936. Zi Minyun, a physicist, was born in 1938.

Zi was married to a Chinese historian, scholar and European expert, Chen Lemin (陈乐民), he was born in 1930 and died in 2008.