Dr Guohua YANG MA (UCL), PhD (Cantab), FRSA, FRAS is Director of Research and one of the Principal Investigators of the project Technological Processes and Social Organisation in Early Northern China (China-TRACER) in the School of Archaeology.
Previously, Guohua served as Senior Researcher and co- Principal Investigator for the project Yangshao Culture: 100 Year Research History and Heritage Impact at the University of Cambridge. He has also worked as a Heritage Expert and National Cultural Programme Assistant at the UNESCO Office Beijing, contributing to the project The Methodology of Paper Conservation and Paper Making Traditions in East Asia, covering the DPR Korea, Japan, Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea. In addition, he served as Deputy Director of the Expert Committee of the China Cultural Heritage Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China.
He has held a number of visiting appointments, including Research Fellow in Zhengzhou, Visiting Professor in Xi’an, and Chair Professor in Taiyuan. Working across archaeology, heritage studies, museum studies, art history, material culture, and architecture, Guohua’s research, and writing focus particularly on the enduring nature of prehistoric social organisation in early China and its relevance to the contemporary world. His work employs archaeological perspectives to illuminate both early prehistory and modern histories. He approaches Neolithic and Bronze Age societies not only as subjects of contemplation, but as active frameworks for engaging with the ongoing presence of the past in our shared present.
Guohua has edited and authored nine books since 1996, primarily for academic audiences, including publications with EDP Sciences Press (Paris), Science Press (Beijing), China Social Sciences Press, Oxford University Press, and Springer Nature. He is a Fellow and former Trustee of the Heritage International Foundation. He is Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual international journal Yangshao and a member of the editorial board of the international journal World Chinese Character Studies (IJCCS: English edition). He is also a peer-review expert for Asian Heritage Studies for Routledge (Taylor & Francis), and for Chinese archaeology and cultural heritage for the MDPI journal Arts. He has published multiple academic monographs and numerous research articles, planned and edited several major Chinese- and English-language books, and organised a number of international academic conferences.
Keywords: ancient art; prehistory; Neolithic; Bronze Age; East Asia; early China; archives; technologies of making; digital archaeology, heritage, and museums.
Doctoral Supervision
Guohua is happy to supervise on the archaeology and material and visual culture of the Neolithic, Bronze and contemporary past, including heritage studies, museum studies, histories of landscape and the built environment, and the intersections between histories of art and histories of science.
His current thematic interests include ancient architecture and art, prehistoric settlements, symbolic systems, jade and pottery (ceramic) technologies, and museums and heritage (broadly conceived). He particularly welcomes enquiries related to Neolithic China, especially within the framework of the project Technological Processes and Social Organisation in Early Northern China (China-TRACER).
