Zhang Guojie is a professor at the Department of Ethnology of the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China (中央民族大學民族學與社會學學院). Born in 1949 as a native of Hongdong County (洪洞縣), Shanxi, he graduated from the Department of History at Nankai University (南開大學歷史系) in 1975, and has been teaching about and studying ethnic groups in Xinjiang at the Institute of Ethnological Research (民族研究所) and the Department of Ethnology of Minzu University of China since 1975. His co-authored works include A Brief Political History of Modern Xinjiang Society (新疆現代社會政治史略), Folk Customs and Aesthetics (民族風情與審美), Folk Art and Aesthetics (民族藝術與審美), Ethnic Minorities in the Sino-Japanese War (少數民族與抗日戰爭) and A Century of Muslim Chinese History (百年中國穆斯林). He has also authored over 20 research papers including Manichaeism and the Uighur Khanates (摩尼教與回鶻); Tentative Remarks on the 1864 Uyghur and Muslim Chinese Peasants’ Uprising in Ili (試論1864年伊犁維吾爾、回族農民起義); Yao Xing, The Qiang Politician (羌族政治家姚興); The Real Story of Xaripkhan (沙里福汗其人); The Commercial Trade Activities of Early Qing Uyghurs (論清代前期維吾爾族的商業貿易) and High-tech Industrial Development Zones and the Economic Development of Ethnic Minority Regions in Western China (高新技術開發區與西部民族地區的經濟發展).