Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Nationalism and Politics in Chinese Archaeology

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

  • 527 Accesses

Introduction

Although China looks back at a history of more than a thousand years of antiquarian and proto-archaeological studies, modern field archaeology was only introduced to China in the early twentieth century. In a time of rising nationalism, archaeology played a significant role in the (re-)construction of China’s national history. The search for the cultural origins of the country became the driving force in the development of the discipline in China, exerting remarkable influence on its theoretical research orientations and interpretations of archaeological finds.

From the very beginning, Chinese archaeology has been indicative of changing social and political paradigms: over the course of the twentieth century the many changes in the political landscape of China from the Republican era (1912–1949) to the years of the rule of Mao Zedong毛泽东 (1893/1949–1976) and the tumultuous decade of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) followed by the era of “reform and opening-up” under...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams, J. 2013. The role of underwater archaeology in framing and facilitating the Chinese National Strategic Agenda. In Cultural heritage politics in China, ed. T. Blumenfield and H. Silverman, 261–282. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Aoyama, R. 2016. “One belt, one road”: China’s new global strategy. Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies 5 (2): 3–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bagley, R. 1999. Shang archaeology. In The Cambridge history of ancient China: From the origins of civilization to 221 BC, ed. M. Loewe and E. Shaughnessy, 124–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. 2008. Li Ji: Father of Chinese archaeology. Orientations 39: 61–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, K.C. 1981. Archaeology and Chinese historiography. World Archaeology 13 (2): 156–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, X. 2009. Zhongguo kaoguxueshi yanjiu luncong 中国考古学史研究论丛. Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dikötter, F. 1992. The discourse of race in modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durham University. 2016. Durham archaeology in China. https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/asia/palace-museum/?itemno=31859#top. Accessed 10 Feb 2019.

  • Falkenhausen, L.v. 1993. On the historiographical orientation of Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 67: 839–849.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falkenhausen, L. v. 1995. The regionalist paradigm in Chinese archaeology. In Nationalism and the practice of Chinese archaeology, ed. P. Kohl and C. Fawcett, 198–217. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gao, X. 2010. Revisiting the origin of modern humans in China and its implications for global human evolution. Science China: Earth Sciences 53 (12): 1927–1940.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gries, P.H. 2004. China’s new nationalism: Pride, politics, and diplomacy. Berkeley/London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, R., J. Li, and Y. Yasuda. 2002. The Nanzhuangtou and Hutouliang sites: Exploring the beginnings of agriculture and pottery in North China. The Origins of Pottery and Agriculture 193–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heberer, T. 2017. China and its national minorities. Autonomy or assimilation? London: Routledge Revivals.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoagland, P. 1997. Managing the underwater cultural resources of the China seas: A comparison of public policies in mainland China and Taiwan. The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 12 (2): 265–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hon, T.-K. 1996. Ethnic and cultural pluralism: Gu Jiegang’s vision of a new China in his studies of ancient history. Modern China 22 (3): 315–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsü, I. 1990. China without Mao. The search for a new order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jin, L., and B. Su. 2000. Native or immigrants: Modern human origin in East Asia. Nature Reviews 1: 126–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Y.K. 2002. Building the chronology of early Chinese history. Asian Perspectives 41 (1): 15–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leibold, J. 2006. Competing narratives of racial unity in republican China: From the Yellow Emperor to Peking Man. Modern China 32: 181–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, L. 2009. Academic freedom, political correctness, and early civilisation in Chinese archaeology: The debate on Xia-Erlitou relations. Antiquity 83: 831–843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, L. 2017. A history of Chinese archaeology. In Handbook of east and southeast Asian archaeology, ed. J. Habu, P.V. Lape, and J.W. Olsen, 39–58. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mullaney, T. 2010. Coming to terms with the nation: Ethnic classification in modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, E.J. 2017. Cultural governance in contemporary China: “Re-orienting” party propaganda. In To govern China. Evolving practices of power, ed. V. Shue and P.M. Thornton, 29–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Portal, J. 2007. The first emperor: China’s terracotta Army. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaughnessy, E.L. 2009. Chronologies of ancient China: A critique of the ‘Xia–Shang–Zhou chronology project’. In Windows on the Chinese world: Reflections by five historians, ed. Clara Wing-chung Ho, 15–28. Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidaway, J.D., and C.Y. Woon. 2017. Chinese narratives on ‘one belt, one road’(一带一路) in geopolitical and imperial contexts. The Professional Geographer 69 (4): 591–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su, Bingqi. 1984. Guanyu kaoguxue wenhua de quxi leixing wenti 关于考古学文化的问题 [On the problem of regions, series and types of archaeological cultures]. In Su Bingqi kaoguxue lunshu xuanji 苏秉琦考古学论述选集 [Selection of archaeological writings by Su Bingqi], 225–234. Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Su, Bingqi 苏秉琦. 1994. Huaren – long de chuanren – zhongguoren: kaogu xungen ji 华人龙的传人中国人: 考古寻根记 [Hua people – descendants of the dragon – Chinese: An archaeological seeking after roots]. Shenyang: Liaoning daxue chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trigger, Bruce G. 2006. A history of archaeological thought. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Visconti, C. 2016. Un secolo di archeologia cinese. Storia della disciplina dall’inizio del XX secolo ai giorni nostri. Milano: Mondadori.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, W. 2011. The present status and prospect of the researches on the origins of Chinese civilizations: Focus on the first stage (2004–05) of the exploration on the origin of Chinese civilization project. Chinese Archaeology 7: 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia, N., ed. 1974. New archaeological finds in China. Discoveries during the cultural revolution. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia, N. 1979. “Wusi yundong he Zhongguo jindai kaoguxue de xingqi” 五四运动和中国近代考古学的兴起. Kaogu 3: 193–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia-Shang-Zhou Duandai Gongcheng Zhuanjiazu 夏商週斷代工程專家組, [Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project]. 2000. Xia Shang Zhou duandai gongcheng 1996–2000 nian jieduan chengguo baogao (jianben) 夏商周斷代工程 1996–2000 年階段成果報告 [Report on the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project, 1996–2000]. Bejing: Shijie Tushu Chuban Gongsi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zan, L. 2014. Cultural heritage in China: Between policies, development, professional discourse, and the issue of managing. Public Archaeology 13 (1–3): 99–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, Z. 1987. “Lun Erlitou yizhi wei Xiadai wanqi duyi” 论二里头遗址为夏代晚期都邑 (On the Erlitou site as a capital of the late Xia dynasty). Huaxia Kaogu 2: 196–204.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Andersson, J.G. 1943. Researches into the prehistory of the Chinese. Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 15: 1–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, K.C. 1977. Chinese archaeology since 1949. The Journal of Asian Studies 36 (4): 623–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, K.C. 1986. The archaeology of ancient China. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz-Andreu, M. 2001. Nationalism and archaeology. Nations and Nationalism 7 (4): 429–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, J. 1996. The nationless state: The search for a nation in modern Chinese nationalism. In Chinese nationalism, ed. J. Unger, 56–85. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, L., and H. Xu. 2007. Rethinking Erlitou: Legend, history and Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 81 (314): 886–901.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tong, E. 1996. Thirty years of Chinese archaeology (1949–1979). In Nationalism, politics and the practice of archaeology, ed. P. Kohl and C. Fawcett, 177–197. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, T. 1997. Establishing the Chinese archaeological school: Su Bingqi and contemporary Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 71 (271): 31–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, L. 2011. Soviet inspiration in Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 85 (329): 1049–1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, L. 2013. The Chinese school of archaeology. Antiquity 87 (337): 896–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chinese Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Phillip Grimberg

Authors
  1. Phillip Grimberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phillip Grimberg .

Section Editor information

  1. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK

    Anke Hein PhD

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Grimberg, P. (2019). Nationalism and Politics in Chinese Archaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3366-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3366-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation