Nan Fangshuo(南方朔 born in 1946), is a journalist, political commentator, and cultural critic. Today, he is the chief editor and writer of The Journalist magazine (《新新聞週刊》), with commentaries on current issues in major newspapers. His writings, including Western ideas analysis, social phenomena criticism, and literature comments, are all regarded as very influential. Crediting his intellectual contribution to the society, he is known as "the most industrious private scholar in Taiwan".

Nan Fangshuo earned his undergraduate degree in the School for Forestry and Resource Conservation, from National Taiwan Universityand a doctorate degree in Chinese Culture University. The Diaoyutai Island (Senkaku Islands) incident made him reach an ephiphany to become a journalist. During that period, he abandoned his overseas study plan and stayed in Taiwan, starting his career. In the 1970s, Nan was a reporter for the Taiwan Times, and afterwards worked as a writer, vice general editor, and general editor in The China Times. Although he never received technical university training in journalism, he has more than twenty years of experience in the mass media as a news commentator.