Jacques Pimpaneau (September 12, 1934 – November 2, 20211) was a French sinologist and translator. Scholarship holder, he studied at Peking University from 1958 to 1960. Back in the West, he became a professor at the Institut National des Langues et Civilizations Orientales, where he held the chair of Chinese literature from 1963 to 1999. Between 1968 and 1971 , is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he coincides with the Belgian sinologist Pierre Ryckmans (also known under the pseudonym Simon Leys). Jacques Pimpaneau was at the center of meetings between certain sinologists and radical situationist theorists such as his former student René Viénet. Jacques Pimpaneau participates in 1976 in the documentary Chinois, encore un effort pour être révolutionnaires! ("Chinese, one more effort and you will be revolutionaries") directed by René Viénet and in which the Maoist regime is attacked.

In 1972, Pimpaneau created the Kwok On museum (Arts et traditions populaires d'Asie) in Paris, whose collections have been donated to the Musée do Oriente in Lisbon.

He was secretary to Jean Dubuffet and close to Georges Bataille in the latter part of his life.