Last week the UCL Institute of Archaeology hosted a delegation of academic staff and research students from Southeast University and China National Academy of Arts to explore research synergies on art, anthropology and heritage within the context of the Anthropocene and the climate emergency.
A highlight of the visit was a generous donation of books written by the renowned Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong from Professor Lili Fang, Director of the Art Anthropology Research Institute at the China National Academy of Art, Beijing, Distinguished Chair Professor of Art Anthropology at Southeast University, Nanjing, and Founding President of the Chinese Association for the Anthropology of Art, and Professor Yongjian Wang, Professor in the Anthropology Research Institute at the China National Academy of Art and a visiting researcher in the 2025/6 Academic Year in the UCL Institute of Archaeology.
This donation highlighted longstanding research connections on what we now term heritage studies between London and China, as Fei Xiaotong received his PhD from the London School of Economics under the direction of Bronisław Malinowski in 1938. Professor Lili Fang was herself Fei Xiaotong’s last postdoctoral researcher, undertaking anthropological research in the west of China under his direction.
