Public Archaeology in China between the Late Qing and Republican Periods

Abstract The opening of China to the West after the First Opium War (1839–1842) ushered in two major changes in Chinese intellectual life: the widespread introduction of Western knowledge and the development of a new medium of communication, a modern press. The latter became the principal medium for the dissemination of Western learning in China and also a channel for public opinion in Chinese intellectual circles. Around the same time, in the latter part of the 19th century, the word translating the modern Western concept of archaeology (kaogu) was popularised through the press. The archaeological content reported in new mass publications created early public knowledge about archaeology in China and is a crucial repository of information about the history of public archaeology, a phenomenon that was formally named in English-language scholarship in the 1970s but that had long existed. This chapter will trace a history of public archaeology between the late 19th century and the Republican period (1912–1949), predominantly through an analysis of print and (later) broadcast media. It explores the use of archaeological knowledge by political thinkers in the late Qing dynasty to advance notions about the make-up of a ‘Chinese nation’, and the spreading of knowledge and awareness of heritage protection, especially in relation to the role of the state. This raising of consciousness about heritage was a precursor to thorough, systematic public campaigns in the second half of the 20th century.