Kwang-chih Chang
Taiwanese anthropologist, archaeologist, and sinologist (1931–2001)
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Early life
Chang was born in Beijing on April 15, 1931, the second son in a family of four children. His paternal grandfather was a farmer in Taiwan. His father, Chang Wo-chün, moved in 1921 to complete his education in Beijing, where he met and married Chang's mother. Wo-chun later became a professor of Japanese literature and language at Peking University and developed a reputation as a leading literary figure.
In 1946, Chang moved with his family to Taiwan. His close association with his older brother, who had chosen to remain in mainland China, led to a year-long imprisonment during the White Terror when he was 17 years old. He enrolled in National Taiwan University in 1950 to study archaeology and anthropology. After graduating in 1954, he moved to the United States to complete doctoral studies and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1960. His doctoral dissertation was titled Prehistoric Settlements in China: A Study in Archaeological Method and Theory.
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Career
Chang began his teaching career in the Anthropology Department at Yale University and later became the chair of the department. In 1977, he returned to Harvard to chair its Department of Anthropology. He became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1979 and the John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology at Harvard in 1984. He was a Vice-President of Taiwan's Academia Sinica from 1994 to 1996. He trained many students over the years including distinguished archaeologists such as Bruce Trigger, Richard J. Pearson, and Choi Mong-lyong.
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 on January 3, 2001, in Boston, from complications due to Parkinson's disease. Most of his books of personal research are preserved in the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History, Boston University.
Honors
- Association for Asian Studies (AAS), 1996 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies