Zheng Jiaxin (鄭家馨) was born 1934 in Fuzhou, Fujian province, and died in Beijing on May 24, 2017. He entered Peking University in 1958 and stayed there to teach after completing his studies. His field of expertise was African History, African History and the History of Colonialism in Africa. He co-authored Fei Zhou Tong Shi Jian Bian (A Concise Compilation of African History) (非洲通史簡編) with Professor He Fangchuan (何芳川), and participated in the compilation of the Zhongguo Da Bai Ke Quan Shu (Chinese Big Encyclopedia) (中國大百科全書) as the associate chief editor of the section on African History. From 1986 onwards, he was the chief editor for Fei Zhou Tong Shi, Jin Dai Juan (A General History of Africa, The Early Modern Age Volume) (非洲通史 ‧ 近代卷), a state key project in philosophy and social science during China’s Seventh Five-Year Plan.
He had received numerous awards for his research works, including first prize of Peking University’s Works of Scientific Research Achievements (5th season) (北京大學第五屆科學研究成果著作一等獎) (1996) for his work Fei Zhou Tong Shi – Gu Dai Juan, Jin Dai Juan, Xian Dai Juan (A General History of Africa - Ancient Volume, Early Modern Volume and Modern Volume) (非洲通史 - 古代卷、近代卷、現代卷); second prize of the Beijing Municipality Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award (北京市普通高等學校教學成果二等獎) (1997) for his restructuring of the course Shi Jie Tong Shi (A General History of the World) (世界通史); first prize in the “history” category of the Ministry of Education’s Remarkable Achievements on Research on Humanities and Social Sciences for Higher Education Institutions of China (5th season) (教育部普通高等學校第五屆人文社會科學研究成果獎歷史學一等獎) (1998) as well as third prize for the National Social Science Fund Projects Excellent Achievement Award (國家社會科學基金專案優秀成果三等獎) (1999) for his work A General History of Africa, and third prize in the “history” category of Remarkable Achievements on Research on Humanities and Social Sciences for Higher Education Institutions of China (third season) (第三屆中國高校人文社會科學研究優秀成果歷史學三等獎) (2003) for his work Zhi Min Zhu Yi Shi – Fei Zhou Juan (History of Colonialism in Africa) (殖民主義史‧非洲卷).
