Teaching ‘Chinese’ Archaeology in Taiwan, 1947–2022

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ID: 322051
2026
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Abstract
Abstract Because of their potential to generate social memories and historical narratives, archaeological practices are often involved in contemporary power dynamics. While archaeology and anthropology in Taiwan began under Japanese occupation, professional education in ‘Chinese archaeology’ can be traced back to mainland scholars’ move to the island after 1949. Scholars from the Institute of History and Philology, including Li Chi, Kao Ch’u-hsun, Tung Tso-pin, and Shih Chang-ju brought their experience from Yinxu to National Taiwan University (NTU). Although archaeology in mainland China and Taiwan shares an origin point, in the excavations at Yinxu, the discipline has evolved in very different directions. Through systematically reviewing the taught modules on ancient China at NTU from 1947 to 2022, this chapter suggests that the university’s archaeological curriculum needs to be historicised within the Nationalist dictatorship, Cold War geopolitics, and the continuous cultural struggle to define both ‘Chineseness’ and ‘Taiwaneseness’. Over 75 years, Chinese archaeology as taught at NTU has forsaken its original emphasis on using artefacts or inscriptions to reconstruct national history and moved towards a stronger focus on prehistory studied from an anthropologically comparative point of view. Earlier Sinocentric discourses have been supplanted by local Austronesian perspectives or concerns drawn from broader East Asian contexts. This shift is concurrent with Taiwan’s transformation from the Guomindang authoritarian regime to a democratic society in the 1980s while the processual turn in archaeology in the 1960s also promoted interest in Taiwanese prehistory, breaking with earlier antiquarian tendencies revolving around the research on Bronze Age Central Plains. This change in archaeological pedagogy offers a snapshot of how identities, ideologies, and archaeological knowledge are entangled and transformed through time.
Reference Key
openalex_W7170077907 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Yu-Chun Kan
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197800324.013.0018
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197800324.013.0018
Keywords Keywords not found

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