Kwang-chih Chang (張光直) (1931 – 2001), aka
K.C. Chang, was a Chinese/Taiwanese archaeologist and sinologist. He was a professor of archaeology at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, a Vice-President of the
Academia SinicaThe Academia Sinica , headquartered in the Nangang District of Taipei, is the national academy of the Republic of China...
and a curator at the
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and EthnologyThe Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Founded in 1866, it is one of the oldest and most renowned museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World and Mesoamerican ethnography...
. He helped to bring modern, western methods of archaeology to the study of ancient Chinese history. He also introduced new discoveries in Chinese archaeology to western audiences by translating works from Chinese to English.
Kwang-chih Chang (張光直) (1931 – 2001), aka
K.C. Chang, was a Chinese/Taiwanese archaeologist and sinologist. He was a professor of archaeology at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, a Vice-President of the
Academia SinicaThe Academia Sinica , headquartered in the Nangang District of Taipei, is the national academy of the Republic of China...
and a curator at the
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and EthnologyThe Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Founded in 1866, it is one of the oldest and most renowned museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World and Mesoamerican ethnography...
. He helped to bring modern, western methods of archaeology to the study of ancient Chinese history. He also introduced new discoveries in Chinese archaeology to western audiences by translating works from Chinese to English. He pioneered the study of Taiwanese archaeology, encouraged multi-disciplinal anthropological archaeological research, and urged archaeologists to conceive of East Asian prehistory (
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
, and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) as a pluralistic whole.
Early years
His paternal grandfather was a farmer in Taiwan. His father moved to
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
in 1921 to pursue his education, where he met and married K.C. Chang's mother. His father later became a professor of
Japanese literatureJapanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. Early works were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
and
languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
at
Peking UniversityPeking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China. It is the first formally established modern research university in and the first national university of China. It was founded as Imperial Capital University in 1898 as a...
. Born in Beijing as the second son in a family of four children, his family returned to Taiwan in 1946.
K.C. Chang enrolled in
National Taiwan UniversityNational Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei City, Taiwan. In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Taida" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan, occupying...
in 1950, where he studied anthropology and archaeology under Li Ji. He chose archaeology because "it is fun". He graduated in 1954 and moved to the United States to pursue his graduate studies at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D in 1960; his dissertation was entitled
"Prehistoric Settlements in China: A Study in Archaeological Method and Theory".
Professional career
He began his teaching career in the Anthropology Department at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
. He then returned to Harvard in 1977 to teach anthropology, and later archaeology. He was the Vice-President of the Academia Sinica from 1994 to 1996. K.C. Chang trained many students over the years, among whom is a group of distinguished archaeologists including
Bruce TriggerBruce Graham Trigger, OC, OQ, FRSC was a Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnohistorian.Born in Preston, Ontario, he received a doctorate in archaeology from Yale University in 1964. His research interests at that time included the history of archaeological research and the comparative...
,
Richard J. PearsonRichard Joseph Pearson is a Canadian archaeologist.He grew up in Toronto and Oakville, Ontario and graduated with a Bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto in 1960. Richard Pearson studied at the University of Hawaii, and Yale University under K.C. Chang and received his doctorate in...
,
Choi Mong-lyongChoi Mong-lyong is an archaeologist and Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Art History at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. Choi was born in Jeolla Province and received his PhD degree in Anthropology in 1984 from Harvard University in the United States. At Harvard Choi...
, and others.
K.C. Chang's main research interests included Chinese prehistory, archaeological theory, settlement archaeology, shamanism, Bronze Age society, and the development of and interaction between regional archaeological cultures in China.
He died in 2001 from complications due to
Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills, speech, and other functions....
.
Select bibliography
- Fengpitou, Tapenkeng, and the Prehistory of Taiwan, ISBN 0-913516-06-6
- Shang Civilization, ISBN 0-300-02428-2
- The Archaeology of Ancient China, ISBN 0-300-03784-8
- Art, mith and ritual (Trad. esp.: Arte, mito y ritual, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2009, ISBN 9788496859456)
External links