Ren Zhiji (Charles Jen in USA), born in 1930,graduated from the English Dept. of Fudan University in 1956 and worked his way in the academia as an assistant teacher and lecturer of English until he was an associate professor in 1980. He also participated in compiling English textbooks for non-English majors in the early 60s as well as editing dictionaries in the 70s. He left Fudan University in 1988 and has been living in Los Angeles ever since.His interest in translating classical Chinese poetry dates back to the late 90s of the last century. A late comer, but an addicted one at that,for now he considers it as one of his hobbies. His other hobbies are: music and photography.