Paul Dong

Bridge Between Eastern and Western Ufology

Paul Dong was born in mainland China before emigrating to the United States, where he became one of the first and most significant Western researchers to systematically document UFO phenomena from Chinese sources. During China's UFO fever of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dong served as editor-in-chief of The Journal of UFO Research, positioning himself at the center of Asian ufological research during a critical period when Cold War information barriers severely limited Western knowledge of Eastern observations.

Major Publications and Research Scope

Dong's most influential work was UFOs over Modern China (1983), co-authored with Colonel Wendelle C. Stevens, a respected UFO investigator and photographer. This groundbreaking volume presented the first comprehensive Western account of modern Chinese UFO sightings, drawing from decades of civilian and institutional observations within the People's Republic. Following its success, Dong published The Four Major Mysteries of Mainland China (1984), which expanded his scope to encompass paranormal phenomena beyond UFO sightings.

His work was subsequently revised and republished as China's Major Mysteries: Paranormal Phenomena and the Unexplained in the People's Republic, which catalogued China's unsolved mysteries including UFO encounters, psychic phenomena, ESP studies, Qigong research, and cryptid reports. Dong authored at least 15 books on ufological and paranormal topics, with China's Super Psychics becoming his most widely recognized work on Goodreads.

In 1981, Dong contributed significantly to discourse within UFO research with his article "The UFO Phenomenon As I See It," published in Chinese UFO and qigong-focused publications, demonstrating the interconnected study of anomalous phenomena in Eastern research traditions.

Notable Documented Cases

Dong documented historical and contemporary Chinese UFO incidents with scholarly rigor. One significant case he investigated was the October 28, 1961 sighting in Kaifeng, Henan Province, where multiple witnesses observed a low-flying, circular, disc-shaped craft with a metallic sheen. The encounter lasted approximately seven minutes, and Engineer Chang Ching-lai captured several photographs during the event—images that Dong preserved in his research archives.

Beyond modern cases, Dong traced the history of aerial anomalies in Chinese civilization, documenting medieval accounts such as those recorded by Shen Kuo, an eminent 11th-century scientist and polymath. This historical perspective distinguished Dong's work from purely contemporary ufology, demonstrating that unexplained aerial phenomena had been observed consistently across centuries of Chinese culture.

Dong also investigated unusual UFO activity patterns over the Gobi Desert, noting an unusually high concentration of reports in that region. His hypothesis that the Gobi might harbor an extraterrestrial base reflected the speculative dimension of his research while remaining grounded in documented witness accounts.

Legacy and Significance

Paul Dong's contributions to Western ufology were instrumental during the Cold War, when access to Chinese scientific records and civilian UFO reports was extremely limited. His translations and systematic organization of Chinese UFO phenomena made Eastern anomalous observations available to Western researchers, fundamentally expanding the geographic and cultural scope of ufological understanding. By positioning himself as a bridge between Chinese and Western research communities, Dong challenged the Western-centric narrative that had dominated ufology and demonstrated that anomalous aerial phenomena constituted a genuinely global phenomenon rather than a primarily American or European curiosity.