Zheng Yuanjie

Zheng Yuanjie was born on June 15, 1955, into a military family in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. In 1961 he moved with his parents to Beijing. During his childhood the Cultural Revolution broke out and schools were closed; Zheng went with his parents to the National Defense Science and Technology Commission’s “May Seventh” cadre school in Suiping County, Henan Province for early education, but an essay led to his expulsion and thus ended his primary-school studies.

From 1970 to 1976 Zheng served at Xiangtang Airport in Nanchang as an Air Force aircraft maintenance technician. He left the military in 1976. In 1977 he began writing; in 1978 his first work was published in the Henan periodical Xiangyanghua, formally launching his literary career. In 1979 he published the children’s tale Heihei on Honesty Island, which brought his work gradually into the public eye.

In 1985 Zheng founded the children’s magazine King of Fairy Tales to publish his own works, becoming an important figure in children’s literature. In 1986 he published the fairy tale The Drunken Ox King, and in October of the same year he and Zhang Qiulin co-founded the early-childhood periodical The Big Grey Wolf Pictorial. In 1990 a traditional Chinese (Taiwan) edition of King of Fairy Tales as a monthly magazine was launched, broadening his influence.

In 1993 Zheng was named one of Beijing’s first ten outstanding young people. In 1995 he began writing with a computer and published the novel The Galloping Banknote-Checking Machine. In 1999 he published the fairy tale The Pig King’s Photograph, and in 2000 he released the novels Baike and Biochemical Nanny. In 2001 he published several long novels including Wisdom Tooth, The Golden Thumb, I Am Money, and Germ Concentration Camp. In 2002 he published the long novel Ghost Car and began work defending his trademarks.

In October 2005 Zheng signed an agreement with 21st Century Publishing House to have all his works published by that press. In 2006 his large children’s-book series “The Pipilu Mobilization” was officially published and became one of his representative works. In 2008 Zheng received the United Nations “International Copyright Creative Gold Award.” That year he also wrote the fairy tale The Jujube Girl for children in poor areas and raised funds through live streaming to support disaster relief. After the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake he donated 380,000 yuan to the disaster area and was called “the author who donated the most.”

In 2009 Zheng topped the list of China’s wealthiest writers with 20 million yuan in royalties. That year he published multiple works with family and legal-education content and co-published the collected volume Zheng Family Father-and-Son Dialogues. In 2010 he continued notable public welfare work, donating 1,000,000 yuan to the Yushu disaster area in Qinghai, and he withdrew from the China Writers Association.

In 2011 Zheng was named a “Love Envoy” by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation under the State Council, and with 12 million yuan in royalties ranked third on China’s list of wealthy writers. He collaborated with his son Zheng Yaqi to develop China’s first legal-education online game, Pipilu and the 419 Crimes, and sales of his fairy tales continued to grow. In 2012 he again topped China’s wealthy-writers list with 26 million yuan in annual royalties. In 2013 he met with British Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the development of children’s books.

In 2014 Zheng continued to use his fairy tales to influence society, publishing law-popularizing fairy tales written with a brush and releasing works such as Pipilu and Red Tower Amusement Park. In 2015 he appeared on the CCTV youth lecture program “Open Talk.” In 2016 he won multiple copyright-protection cases and published numerous new fairy tales.

From 2017 to the present Zheng Yuanjie has continued to publish works, release multiple children’s-book series, and advocate for children’s rights on public platforms. He has received various social honors, including the China Charity Model Award, the International Copyright Creative Gold Award, and repeated rankings on China’s wealthy-writers lists. In 2023 Zheng announced he would stop trademark enforcement actions and cease updating his self-media accounts in protest against trademark infringement, expressing his concern about copyright protection.