Jian earned his PhD in philosophy from Tsinghua University, specializing in contemporary analytic philosophy. Prior to that, he worked as an editor at Post Wave Publishing. He has published a number of articles and reviews in Chinese and English, and he has translated and published works of Daniel Dennett, Charles Travis, Thomas Metzinger and others from English into Chinese.

Jian is responsible for project research and management. He also manages Cuiling Magazine as well as other publications at the Berggruen China Center.