News & Views

December 2024 Sichuan University Conference
Chris Hoogendyk Chris Hoogendyk

December 2024 Sichuan University Conference

On December 20, 2024, I posted an article on the 90th Anniversary of the 1934 Yueliangwan Excavation. The event was commemorated with a conference at Sichuan University at which I participated by sending in a video presentation titled “David Crockett Graham’s Legacy.” Jay Xu, who is an expert on the history and art of Sanxingdui, was at the conference and gave a presentation titled “Integrative investigation on the bronze vessels from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits.”

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The Secret Lives of Letters
Chris Hoogendyk Chris Hoogendyk

The Secret Lives of Letters

It goes without saying that a letter does not stay with the person who wrote it. Prolific letter writers, such as David Crockett Graham and Alicia Morey Graham in particular, scattered their thoughts and observations far and wide, sending greetings, missives, and sometimes lengthy descriptions to family, friends, professional colleagues and acquaintances around the world. During their early years in China, letters traveled by boat down the Yangtze and then by steamer across the Pacific Ocean. During the war of resistance against Japan, letters sometimes went through Russia by train, then through Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean. During World War II, they went by plane over “the hump” (the Himalayas) to India, then to North Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean.

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90th Anniversary of the 1934 Yueliangwan Excavation
Chris Hoogendyk Chris Hoogendyk

90th Anniversary of the 1934 Yueliangwan Excavation

90 years ago David Crockett Graham carried out the first archaeological excavation at the site now known as Sanxingdui. His report on the excavation was published in the Journal of the West China Border Research Society* and received international acclaim. While he referred to it as the Hanchow excavation, the village where it took place is now known as Yueliangwan.

Photo: Mr. Lin Min-juin, assistant curator, (left), D. C. Graham (right), with some of the Hanchow gentry who cooperated in carrying out the excavation.

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