SEAA News Blog

Oxford University and SOAS will jointly organize Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage Seminar Series via Zoom from January 27 to February 24, 2021. To receive the links for the talks, please register by sending an email to Drs Chris Foster & Anke Hein at: understandingauthenticity@gmail.com

Role Summary

Curator: Early China Collections
Asia
Full-Time
Permanent
£30,348 per annum
Application Deadline: 12pm on 20 January 2021

The British Museum is seeking a Curator: Early China Collections to join the Asia department. The main purpose of this role is to undertake research into and make publicly accessible areas of the Early China Collections in support of the Museum Operating Plan and all relevant Museum strategies.

By Gao Dalun, translated by Anke Hein

As the saying goes, “if you plant one seed of millet in the spring, you will harvest ten thousand grains in autumn.” After a year and a half of meticulous preparation, the archaeological ceramic specimen database of the Social Science Center has finally reached a preliminary completion. To display the full cultural and academic value of this archaeological achievement, allow for more people to learn about and make use of the collection to carry out archaeological research, and to stimulate the public's interest in archaeology and history, the Social Center held an opening ceremony for the "Ceramic Stories" exhibition on December 5, 2020. More than 40 researchers from archaeological and cultural institutions across the country gathered at the Southern University of Science and Technology to celebrate the completion of the collection. Among them were Prof. Zhou Yongming, Director of the Center for Social Sciences, Prof. Chen Yuehong, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Southern University of Science and Technology, Prof. Gao Dalun, former head of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Archaeology and leading director of the Ceramic Specimen Collection at the Social Science Centre, Dr Yegor Grebnev, former doctoral and postdoctoral student at the University of Oxford and now postdoctoral researcher at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, and various researchers focusing on ceramic studies, among them Gao Xuyang, DPhil student at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, who assisted in preparing the exhibition.

Upcoming public lecture at the UCL Institute of Archaeology by Shan Huang, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

North China in the sixth century AD saw a major transformation of glazed ceramic technology from dark glazed terracotta wares towards translucent white porcelain. But the process of this dramatic transformation is unclear, due to insufficient understanding of the archaeological material. The lecture will focus on the typo-chronology of three major categories of glazed ceramic discovered in sixth century North China and their manufacturing technologies. Chemical and mineralogical compositions of the body and the glaze, glazing method, firing temperature and atmosphere were studied by optical microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal expansion measurement. These provide insights into the pathways of innovation of lead-glazed wares, of the transfer of ash-glazed stoneware technology from the South and the emergence of the earliest white porcelain. On this basis, the social dynamic that drove the transformation of the ceramic technology and its impact on the succeeding period are discussed.

The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies offers post-doctoral fellowships for the 2021-2022 academic year. The post-docs are open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences specializing in East Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.

Fellowships are granted for one academic year or one semester. The starting date of the visit should not be later than four years after receipt of the doctoral degree; the fellow must hold a valid doctoral degree no later than October 2021.

The Anthropology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong is hosting an Interdisciplinary Roundtable Webinar on Archaeology, Architecture and Public Engagement: Preserving Century-old Underground Reservoir in Bishop Hill, Hong Kong 考古學、建築學和公眾參與的跨學科圓桌網上研討會：保育香港主教山百年地下配水庫 via Zoom on January 9th, 2021 from 5-8:30 pm (Hong Kong Time). For more information, and to register for the event, please check the following link: https://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~ant/event/5675/

The European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant project: The Wall: People and Ecology in Medieval Mongolia and China, is offering Doctoral scholarships beginning in October 2021. The program is located at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is under the direction of Prof. Gideon Shelach-Lavi.

The Centre of South East Asian Studies will be hosting a lecture series via Zoom on January 13, 2021 from 11 am - 1 pm (London Time) titled "Maritime Trade and Shipwrecks: Recent Discoveries from Vietnam and Central Thailand" by Abhirada Komoot (PhD Candidate, University of Western Australia) and Do Truong Giang (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences). 

"Palaeolithic voyage for invisible islands beyond the horizon"

Authors: Yosuke Kaifu, Tien-Hsia Kuo, Yoshimi Kubota and Sen Jan 

The Esherick-Ye Family Foundation is pleased to announce its fifth annual competition for small grants of up to $5,000 to support projects in modern Chinese economic, social, and political history or in archaeology.

In the past, grants have been used to support travel to China for a month or two of research or field work. In light of current pandemic conditions, the Foundation is this year open to research proposals that do not involve travel to China. Grants are available for graduate students and untenured faculty.