Biographical Profile
Chen Xingcan was born in Changge, Henan Province in December 1964. He is a member of the Communist Party of China. In 1985, he graduated from the Department of Anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University with a bachelor’s degree in archaeology. In 1991, he earned a Ph.D. in history from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), specializing in archaeology. That same year, he joined the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, where he served as assistant research fellow, associate research fellow, research fellow, and deputy director of the Prehistoric Archaeology Division. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University in the United States, La Trobe University in Australia, and Simon Fraser University in Canada. From 1999 to 2006, he served as assistant director of the Institute of Archaeology at CASS. Between 2006 and 2024, he assumed the roles of deputy director and director of the Institute of Archaeology at CASS. Currently, he is a member of the Academic Divisions of CASS, a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, a International Fellow of the British Academy, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Major Work
His primary research areas include Chinese prehistoric archaeology, the history of archaeology, archaeological theory, and the origins of early civilizations. He has participated in or led surveys and excavations at numerous prehistoric sites, such as the Wufengshan and Jienishan sites in Wuxian, Jiangsu (1983); the prehistoric archaeological site surveys in the Gansu-Ningxia region (1987); the Huanghua Chengguan Paleolithic site in Hebei (1988); the Xiantouling site in Bao’an, Guangdong (1989); the Lilou site in Ruzhou, Henan (1991–1993); the archaeological survey in Jiaozuo, Henan (1996); the Beiyangping and Xipo sites in Lingbao (1999–2005); the Huizui site in Yanshi (2001–2006); and the Peiligang site in Xinzheng (2018–2023). As the Chinese project leader, he has directed several international collaborative projects, including the Sino-Australian-American joint regional systematic survey of the Yiluo River Basin (1997–2007) and the Sino-Romanian joint archaeological project at the Dobrovăț site.
Major Achievements
•Chen Xingcan. A Study of the History of Chinese Prehistoric Archaeology (1895-1949). Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., 1997.
•Chen Xingcan. Archaeological Essays. Cultural Relics Press, 2002.
•Liu Li and Chen Xingcan. 2003. State Formation in Early China. London: Duckworth.
•Magnus Fiskesjö and Chen Xingcan. 2004. China before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the Discovery of China's Prehistory. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. (Bilingual: Chinese-English)
•Chen Xingcan. Collected Essays on the History of Chinese Archaeology in the 20th Century. Cultural Relics Press, 2009.
•Chen Xingcan. Archaeological Essays II. Cultural Relics Press, 2010.
•Liu Li and Chen Xingcan. 2012. The Archaeology of China: from the late Paleolithic to the early Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
•Liu Li and Chen Xingcan. The Archaeology of China: from the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., 2017.
•Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences & Sino-Australian-American Yiluo River Basin Joint Archaeological Team (comps.). Pre-Qin Period Sites in the Middle and Eastern Luoyang Basin: Regional Systematic Survey Report (1997-2007). Science Press, 2019.
•Chen Xingcan. Archaeological Essays III. Cultural Relics Press, 2020.
•Chen Xingcan (ed.). Complete Collection of Unearthed Painted Pottery in China. Science Press & Longmen Books, 2021.
