Theorist of traditional puppetry, mask dance and folk culture of South Korea. Lee Du-hyun received a doctorate in Korean Literature from Seoul National University in 1968. His work on theatre and traditional culture of Korea has been noted by the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Smithsonian Institute, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, JDR 3rd Fund (Asian Cultural Council), and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea. Lee Du-hyun was president of the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology (1972-1974) and the Korean Society for Theatre Research (1975-1977). From 1969, he was the director of the Research Institute of Korean Mask-Dance Drama and, from 1982, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea.

Lee Du-hyun published a number of works in Korean on Korean folk culture and traditional performance, notably A History of Modern Korean Drama (1966), Korean Mask-Dance Drama (1969, 1973), A History of Korean Folk Life (1973), A History of Korean Theatre Arts (1973), Introduction to Korean Folklore (1974), Essays on Korean Folklore (1984), Korean Shamanism and Folk Theatre (1996), and several articles and chapters in English.

(See Korea.)